You Belong to Me
by Athingor3
Summary: Psuedo season 6. Holly is forced back to Toronto because of a series of copycat murders that have Perik's signature. Will she come back to Gail too? Rated M due to adult themes.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: The hiatus is getting to me and with a little bit more than a month to go until the Canadian premier I thought I'd publish this story. I've been working on for a while. I plan on updating it at least twice a week if not more. Maybe I can finish it before the premier, maybe not. Regardless I wanted to get this out there and see what you all think, good or bad. Please let me know.**

**So the following is what would happen if I wrote for Rookie Blue in Season 6. Obviously, I don't; so I don't own RB or it's characters, make no money etc. A shout out to the fabulous bailchab who has been my beta for this. That being said, all mistakes are mine. Don't blame Bailey. Lord knows I would if I could. :D **

Holly's hair framed her face as she held herself on her hands over Gail. Holly smirked. Of course she smirked. Gail was so turned on there was no way it wasn't all over her face. She lowered her head and began to slowly kiss her way down Gail's naked body. Gail was completely naked and had no memory of how she came to be that way. Holly took a nipple in her mouth and then withdrew. Gail cried out, "Holly! Don't tease me!" Holly smirked again and began kissing down Gail's stomach. "Holly, Holly, come back up here. I need to see you" she practically begged. Gail needed the connection with her. Holly was strangely silent. Holly was never silent. Gail tried to pull her back up to reestablish their connection. Holly just continued her descent. Her mouth was hot and wet and when she reached the juncture of Gail's legs she looked up, her face unreadable except for desire. Gail felt herself get wet and then her bedside alarm started going off. She thought, "Why is my alarm going off? What do I have to do today?_"_

Gail reached over and turned it off. Her eyes still closed. She opened them tentatively. Sunlight filtered into her bedroom window past the blinds. She looked down the bed and saw she was tangled in the sheets fully clothed. No Holly. She had had _The Dream _again.

Holly's been gone from Toronto for a year and a half. She's been having _The Dream_ since the night Holly left. The frequency had declined from every night to about once a month. So today was going to be the lucky day. She threw her arm over her eyes and groaned "Awesome." She untangled herself from the sheets and put her feet on the floor, her head in her hands. _The Dream_ always left her with a shaky, unsure feeling, and completely and utterly aroused. You'd think that it would offer some relief, but it never did. She hoped that there wouldn't be a new case today. She had made detective nine months ago, and with no personal life to speak of, had the highest closure rate in Toronto. Her mother was satisfied with her, and that was as good as it had ever been.

She had her own apartment. It was a simple two bedroom in a nice neighborhood. The décor was tastefully done and looked like a grown-up lived there. The walls were a color that Traci told her was eggshell. Except her bedroom. She had painted her bedroom red. She wasn't sure why. It didn't calm her down, or cheer her up, but it reminded her somehow of being alive and that was what she was trying desperately just to be. Alive. Moving forward. At least, that's what she was trying to do anyway.

She had gotten the apartment with the hope of adopting Sophie, knowing it was a long shot, but it still stung when she was eliminated. The upside was that Sophie was happy with a family that had other adopted children. She had an older sister and a younger brother now. Gail got to visit when she could, and even took Sophie's siblings out with them so that she could get to know them too. Sophie and Gail still had a connection but Gail thought that Sophie was better off without her. To Gail, it seemed that everyone was better off without her.

Gail had just gotten back from an undercover assignment yesterday. Luckily, the dream only came twice while she was undercover for three months. As part of her cover, she had dyed her hair dark brown. Honestly, it was closer to her natural color. Ever since cutting her hair in Holly's bathroom, she'd kept her hair short. She hadn't had it cut though in over two months. Now it was a little longer than it was when she got out of the academy. It made her eyes look like they were bluer than the blonde ever did.

She had not heard from Holly since her bosses in San Francisco had given her a promotion; she was a super-nerd superstar. Gail thought she had said all the right things, but was so heartbroken that Holly wouldn't be coming back, that she's not sure what she said. She thought she managed to get off the phone without her voice breaking. She knew that when she hung up she cried herself to sleep. That was six months ago. Gail had left a couple of voice mails and sent a few text messages but Holly had not responded. Gail let her go.

Gail threw the sheet off her lap and stood, stretching her arms over her head. Then she walked into the bathroom to begin getting ready. As the water beat down on her in the shower, she tried to recall the details of the dream to see if it varied from the ones before it. She showered in the hottest water she could stand as if it could cleanse the memory from her. Wash it away. At the end, she turned the water to cold so that she wouldn't walk around half the morning looking like a lobster.

After her shower, she checked her cell phone. She had missed a voicemail from Squalls. She listened to it. _"Detective Peck, you wanted to know if your favorite prisoner ever received any visitors. I have some information for you. I'm working for that bonus you promised me."_

She called him back immediately. "Squalls"

"_Detective" _he drawled.

"So, you said you had something."

"You said you'd make it worth my while…"

"Yeah, yeah. What is it?"

"There was a request just this morning to move Perik to Toronto so that he can be interviewed."

"For what?"

"Not sure."

"So when is the transfer happening?"

"Today, in about an hour."

"Where to?"

"The East"

"Not the West Detention Centre?"

"Nope."

"Okay. Anything else you can tell me?

"Nah. So…my _bonus_?"

"Yeah. I'll transfer a payment to you as soon as we get off the phone."

"Thanks, Detective."

Gail hung up the phone and called the second to last person on earth she wanted to talk to. "Dad, I need some information about a prisoner being transferred to The East Detention Centre. Who do I need to call?" A beat then, "No sir. Nothing important, just following a lead." Another pause, "Thanks, Dad. I'll see you and Mother on Sunday for dinner and you can hear all about the UC op. I got to deck a hit man. Yes, sir. Thank you."

It was all Gail could do not to throw her cell phone across the room. Ross Perik was a disgraced doctor-turned-cab driver that had murdered several women and had kidnapped and drugged her not knowing she was a police officer. When Jerry Barber came to interview him, Perik stabbed Jerry to death and dragged Gail out of his house and stuffed her into the trunk of his cab. She was saved because beautiful, brave, Jerry sacrificed himself to save her. He slipped the phone he could have used to call for help in Perik's pocket so that they could use the GPS to locate and save her.

There was another case where Perik had demanded to speak to Gail because a copycat had abducted a girl in a cab. Gail had done her duty and saved the girl. It cost her though. Gail made a vow then, that for Jerry, for Traci, and by God, for her, that Perik wouldn't see the light of day again. She had bribed a guard at the prison where Perik was. Squalls wasn't honest, he wasn't bright, but he was greedy, and that she could work with.

She dressed quickly and efficiently. Growing up Peck will help you with that. She put on her jeans, black combat boots, black sweater, and black leather jacket. Her one nod to decorum was that she now laced up her boots when she was on duty.

She called Oliver and told him that she needed to take care of something this morning and might not be in until after lunch. Oliver seemed okay with that. In fact, he seemed a bit distracted which was probably best. Then she called Traci and said virtually the same thing to her voicemail. Now that she was a detective, she was partnered with Traci most of the time, which was alright with Gail because Traci was the least annoying of her former academy classmates.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

After parking and getting her visitor pass Gail made her way to the assistant warden who was an old friend of her father's. Inside his office she broached the subject even though she knew that it will get back to her father.

"Thank you Mr. Isaacs. I really appreciate you agreeing to see me on such short notice" Gail said as she extended her hand, looked him in the eye, and shook his hand firmly, just like her dad taught her. Isaacs was a middle aged man with glasses, a paunch, a comb over, and a stain on an older short-sleeved, button-down shirt. He sat down at his desk and gestured for her to sit in the visitor's chair that had seen better days.

"Not at all. I've found that when a Peck calls you that it's just best if you go along for the ride. So what can I do for you?" He asked pushing up his glasses.

"Ross Perik is scheduled to be moved here this morning. I need to know why" Gail said without preamble.

"Oh, I see. That's a need to know thing. I was specifically asked not to…"

"Mr. Isaacs, you most likely know that he abducted me and killed one of my colleagues. I'm 'invested' in what goes on with him, let's say. And as you said, I'm a Peck; I'll find out one way or another. So let's make this easy all the way around and you just tell me what I need to know."

"Well, I don't…"

"Mr. Isaacs, I _need_ to know. The last time he was transferred they called me in to talk to him. I need to know what I might be dealing with."

"Right. Well, from what I understand there have been copycat killings in the U.S. They want to interview him. He's refused to speak to anyone but the forensic pathologist who's investigating the murders. Said it was a doctor's prerogative to speak to another doctor. They moved him here to make it easier to interview him since she's flown in from the States."

Gail had a horrible feeling. "What's the doctor's name?"

"Stewart. Dr. Holly Stewart. I think she used to work in Toronto. This is some sort of joint investigation between the FBI, San Francisco PD, and Toronto PD, since you guys captured Perik the first time."

Gail felt all the color drain from her face. Her ears started ringing. She lost the rest of what he was saying. Something about joint taskforce and number of victims. She'd get all that later. She was sure if she hadn't been sitting down that her legs would have come out from under her. _He's not getting Holly. He's not allowed to touch Holly. _

"I need to know where the interview is happening."

"I'll take you."

"That won't be necessary. Just tell me. I'm sure I'll be able to find it." Gail stood on legs that weren't quite steady, but she didn't falter.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Gail rounded the corner to the hallway outside the private visitation room and spotted Luke Callahan in jeans and a blue button down shirt that almost matched his eyes. He looked at her and then rolled those eyes to the ceiling and sighed.

"Luke, Luke, Luke, you never call, you never write" she said as she approached.

"Now, Peck, I can explain this." He held his hands up. "How did you find out about this anyway?"

"Peck" Gail answered, gesturing vaguely to her chest with her thumb as if that explained it.

"Right."

"So…say words now."

"Why don't you start?"

"Okay. I know that my favorite psycho is about to talk to my ex-girlfriend about copycat murders in the States. My question is, doesn't this sound familiar to you? Why on earth does this seem like a good idea?"

"Well-informed as always, I see. Listen, I know what you're thinking and we're not even sure that Perik knows who she is to you."

"You'll forgive me if I think that's bullshit. He's obsessed with me and really, who could blame him, but I will not have him talking to her. So I just need to speak with her and talk her out of this. Where is she?"

"I can't let you do this, Peck." Luke moved to stand in front of her.

"I don't think 'let' is the word I would use. You really don't have a choice," Gail said as she tried to move past him.

"Gail, she agreed to this on one condition. That she didn't see you. That you couldn't know she was here" he said as he held her shoulders. "I'm sorry. She doesn't want to see you."


	2. Chapter 2

**Oh Wow. I feel a little bit like Sally Field. I mean "You like me. You really like me!" Thank you to everyone who took the time to favorite, follow or review. Remember reviews are the only payment a fanfic writer gets. **

**Shoutout again to bailchab for being a wonderful, patient beta. Hopefully, this next chapter can answer some of the questions about the last one.**

"What?" Gail asked squinting her eyes. Luke thought that he saw hurt on her face for a moment but then it was gone. It was hidden again behind the mask.

"Gail, it took two months for them to convince her to come here and do this. She finally agreed to it on the provision that you couldn't know about it," he said as he finally let go of her shoulders.

"Well, you know, in the immortal words of the Rolling Stones, 'You can't always get what you want.' I certainly didn't get what I wanted when that freak kidnapped me," Gail said voice rising. "I certainly didn't get what I wanted when Holly left me and moved to San Francisco without any input from me. So I don't give a flying fuck about what she wants! Move! I'm going to see her!"

"Gail!" Luke wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into an empty room off the hallway. It looked like a janitor's closet. Once inside, he put her down and began speaking as he grabbed her by the shoulders again, "Gail, if you see her before she sees Perik, then it'll throw her off her game. You can't do that to her. You can't do that to the investigation. You can't do that to the victim's families. You're too good a cop for that. Think!"

Gail threaded her fingers together behind her head and pushed her elbows together. "Aarrgghhhh! Dammit, Callahan!" She paused to look him in the eye. "Fine. But I'm watching her interview with him from an observation room, and I want in. Whatever this is, I want in. I'm on the team from this point forward or I intercept her, and I don't give a good goddamn what happens then."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "You don't mean that. You wouldn't do that. You're too much of a cop to do that."

"Try me," she said as she stared back at him with glacial eyes.

Callahan held up his left hand and rubbed his eyes wearily with his right. "Fine. Whatever." He waved his hand. "I'll get you in after she goes in, but you're out before she comes out. At least for now."

"Fine," she replied. Luke began walking to the door. "Luke," she called to him and he turned around, "give her the same speech you gave me when I had to talk to him."

"Already did."

"Good," she murmured under her breath.

"Gail."

"Yeah?"

"Hair looks good," he said and then walked out of the room.

* * *

True to his word, Luke came and got Gail, and pulled her into the observation room right after Holly went in to the room to wait for Perik. He even brought her a cup of half decent coffee. She walked in to find the room already occupied by a tall gorgeous blonde with shoulder length wavy hair in a black pantsuit. The woman was staring into the interrogation room intently and didn't see Gail at first. Holly was already seated with her back to the mirror. Gail's breath caught in her throat at the sight of Holly. Her hair was in a tight bun like the first day they met. She was wearing the blue button-down. The same one she was wearing the day Gail kissed her in an interrogation room at 15. That's all Gail needed was for Perik to see Holly in _that_ shirt. That shirt featured heavily in _The Dream _every so often. Perik did _not_ need to know about that shirt. Gail sighed.

The blonde turned to look at Gail and did a double-take. "Jesus Christ! Fuck, what is _she_ doing here, Callahan?"

"And fuck you too," Gail said serenely taking a sip of her coffee.

"She was here when I got here. She already knew about it. She's in from this point forward. We'll break it to Holly gently. She's leaving this room before Holly gets in it. She agreed," Luke responded. Gail nodded in agreement.

The blonde examined Gail carefully and relented. "Whatever. Peck, what do you know about this guy? What can you tell me that's not in the reports?"

Gail glared at her. "Seeing as how I haven't_ seen_ the reports, I'm not sure what to say. You seem to know my name but I never got yours."

"Ryan Parker, FBI profiler." She held out her hand. Gail looked at it then shook it reluctantly.

"You don't look like a 'Ryan'," Gail replied.

"Yeah, I get that a lot."

At that moment Holly stood, turned around, and checked her reflection in the two-way mirror. Gail sucked in a surprised breath. Holly looked gaunt. She had dark circles under her eyes which were puffy. She had lost at least fifteen pounds by Gail's estimate. "Is she sick?" Gail asked looking to Parker.

Ryan looked back at her, something Gail couldn't identify crossed her face. "It's the case. It's been hard on her."

Gail tentatively touched the glass near Holly's face. She couldn't help herself. Luke averted his eyes discreetly, trying to give Gail some privacy. Ryan just closed hers momentarily. "How long?" Gail asked never taking her eyes off Holly.

"How long what?" Ryan responded opening her eyes.

"When was the first victim found?"

"Six months ago."

_Six months ago,_ Gail thought. _Six months ago when she stopped returning my calls and texts. She cut me out of her life when this started._

Gail's train of thought was derailed by Perik's arrival into the interrogation room. Holly stood back leaning against the mirror with her arms crossed while the two guards shackled him to the table. He smiled at her predatorily as the guards finished and then walked out of the room leaving the two of them alone.

"Dr. Stewart, you're quite beautiful, even if I do prefer blondes. I think we both do," he quipped.

"Mr. Perik, I'm here to ask you some questions. Are you going to cooperate and answer them?"

"I'll make the same deal with you that I did with Gail. For everything you tell me, I'll tell you something."

"Mr. Perik…"

"Ross, please call me Ross."

"Mr. Perik, I'm not going to bargain with you. If you don't want to provide any insight into these cases, then that's your prerogative. I don't really want to be here anyway. I believe it's a waste of time," Holly said as she walked to the table and picked up the folder in front of her.

"Does it bother you that they look like her?" he said as she turned to face the mirror. Gail saw the emotion storm across Holly's face, just for a moment, and she understood. The victims look like her. Gail staggered back from the mirror. Parker's hand came up automatically to steady her.

"You didn't get the full story did you?" Ryan asked softly. Gail shook her head.

Inside the interrogation room Holly turned from the mirror. "All death bothers me, Mr. Perik, especially murder."

"Then you went into the wrong profession, Dr. Stewart. You see death every day. I think you're more like me than you think. Death fascinates you…You love a good puzzle. You get lost in the medicine of it. You can shut everything down normally, but not when they look like her. She's special. I know it, and you know it."

"Mr. Perik, the fact that the women look like Detective Peck has no bearing on this case or my conduct on it."

"Say her name!"

"Excuse me?" Holly tilted her head.

"You can't even say her name! Say her name, Dr. Stewart. Say it and I'll answer your questions."

"Gail," Holly whispered out and Gail felt it pass through her body like a caress.

"There, that's better. I feel like we're being more honest now. Like how I know she was second best to even you, the one she chose. You picked your career over her. She wasn't enough to make you stay."

Holly tilted her head again and sat down across from him, "That's what you told her isn't it Mr. Perik? That she'd always be second best. Why?"

"I didn't tell her that. She told me that she was jealous of her boyfriend…Nick, I think it was, and she slept with someone to feel better. I just tried to sympathize with her. I asked if she'd been replaced and then said it must be tough being second choice. It does seem to be a pattern in her life. Have _you_ replaced her, Holly?"

"It's Dr. Stewart, Mr. Perik. You're not allowed to call me Holly."

He ignored her and continued to speak. "Is there anything you want to tell her? She's here. I can smell something uniquely Gail." Holly turned to the mirror slightly, her face impassively blank.

In the interrogation room Gail stiffened, not knowing how to make it better. Ryan flew into action. She stripped off her jacket and shirt. "Peck, give me your sweater." Gail stood there unmoving. She looked over at Ryan in confusion. "Peck, move!" Gail began to strip off her sweater. Luke looked away. Ryan handed over her jacket and shirt. Then she pulled the sweater over her head, mussed her hair slightly and opened the door to the interrogation room.

"Mr. Perik, I'm Ryan Parker. I'm with the FBI. I was the only woman in the interrogation room."

Perik's face fell. He looked at Ryan and said, "I thought…did you do it on purpose?"

Perik is too preoccupied to notice the look that passed over Holly's face when she saw Ryan in Gail's sweater. Ryan saw it, but ignored it, and addressed him, "I didn't. Would you like me to stay, Mr. Perik? I heard you say you like blondes. You and I can chat."

"No. Dr. Stewart and I are doing just fine. Aren't we, Holly?"

By the time Holly corrected him by saying, "Dr. Stewart," she had schooled her face.

"I'm so sorry. Yes, of course, Dr. Stewart," Perik said pseudo-submissively. He looked at Ryan briefly and asked, "Why didn't she come?"

"She told me to tell you, 'you're still just a guy shackled to a table,'" Ryan answered and walked back into observation.

Gail looked at Ryan and said, "Niiice."

"I thought you'd like that," Ryan replied and began to strip out of the sweater to give it back to Gail. Gail couldn't help but notice that her abs rivaled Holly's.

In interrogation, Perik recovered quickly and addressed Holly, "Our Gail, not the friendliest girl."

"Mr. Perik, Detective Peck is not _our_ anything." Holly took a deep breath. "Now, what can you tell me about these women and the person killing them?"

"The women look like Gail. The person doing this is a…'collector' of sorts. There's something about these women that's appealing."

"Is it something that they all have in common? Is it just the fact that they look like Detective Peck?"

"That's part of it," he replied evasively.

"What's the rest of it?"

"Is it true that you got her into a batting cage? I can't imagine _our_ Gail doing that."

Gail looked between Luke and Ryan, "How the fuck does he know that?!"

"No idea, but we need to find out," Luke said his eyes never leaving Perik and Holly.

"You seem to be well informed Mr. Perik. How well informed are you about _these women_? What do they have in common? What makes them collectable?"

"Don't you know?" Perik looked smug.

"Mr. Perik…"

"Please, call me Ross."

"_Ross_, what do these women have in common?"

"On the surface they look the same but they are…"

"They're what, Ross?"

"I think I want to go back to my cell now. I'm tired. Perhaps Gail will come with you the next time you come. Guard! I'm done!"

Luke turned to Gail, "That's your cue." Gail reluctantly left the observation room.

Holly waited until the guards took Perik out and unsteadily got to her feet. She walked into observation and straight into Ryan's arms. Holly's body shook with the effort to hold in her tears. Ryan held onto her tightly. After a few moments, Holly raised her head, "Where is she?" Luke and Ryan looked at one another. "I'm not stupid, Ryan. I gave her that fucking sweater. You smell like her all over. Where is she?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Folks, meant to put this in before I posted it. There is a discussion of the killer's victims in this chapter. Nothing you wouldn't see or hear on Rookie Blue itself but just wanted to mention it just in case. **

Gail walked into the detectives' offices at 15 to find Oliver and Traci locked in a discussion. One look, and she knew what they were discussing. The fact that they fell silent as she approached was just icing on the shit cake.

"You both knew," she stated, feeling betrayed by the two people she trusted most in the world.

Oliver looked down at his shoes and then looked her in the eyes, "yeah," he breathed out, "yeah, I knew. We knew."

Traci started, "Gail…"

"When did you find out?" Gail asked them both.

"The Superintendent let me know right before she requested I send you on the undercover assignment. The reasoning was that you'd be safer away from your real life for the time being and you wouldn't have to know," Oliver replied.

Gail looked at Traci. Traci closed her eyes briefly because she knew her answer wasn't going to calm Gail down, and steeled herself for Gail's reaction. "I knew right after they found the first victim. I called Holly, and she told me. She asked me not to tell you," she finished quickly.

"So, someone that you've known for a fraction of the time you've known me, causes such loyalty in you, that you'd lie to me," Gail squinted her eyes at Traci.

"Gail, that's not fair," Oliver starts.

"No! Neither of you get to tell me what is and is not fair…my 'partners'…how ironic is that?" Gail kicked a desk.

"Detective Peck, calm down," Oliver said.

"Well, _Staff Sergeant Shaw_, I just found out that the only two _partners_ I have ever trusted, both have been lying to me. My mother knows, which means my father knows, and most likely my brother. Plus the little added bonus of a homicidal freak hunting women who look like me, who's connected to my favorite freak of all, _and_…and…Holly," Gail cut herself off before she could say any more. She looked hard at both of them, and made up her mind. "Tell Callahan to courier the files over to my apartment. I'm taking a personal day." She began to walk out of the room.

"A what?" Oliver asked.

"A fucking personal day! I deserve it." And with that she walked out of the room.

Oliver looked over at Traci. "Do you think she'll ever forgive us?"

"No," Traci said sadly, "I don't."

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

A few hours later, Gail was in her apartment waiting on the files to be delivered and shooting tequila. She thought briefly about the bourbon in her liquor cabinet but decided against it quickly. She was _not_ drinking bourbon today. She probably wouldn't drink bourbon again for some time. _Drinking bourbon with the coolest chick ever._

The doorbell rang pulling her out of her memory. Gail carried her spare service weapon to the door as she looked out the peephole. Ryan Parker stood on the other side holding a file box that had a brown bag on top of it. Gail got a better look at her. She had a wide generous mouth, full lips, high cheekbones, a jawline that could cut glass, and eyes that were a deeper shade of blue than Gail's. She was gorgeous. _Wasn't that just gravy? _Gail put the gun in her waistband and opened the door slowly.

"Hey, Peck. I got elected to bring the files over since I didn't have a dog in this fight."

"Fucking what?" Gail made a confused face as she adjusted to Ryan's drawl.

"Sorry. I'm from Texas. It means that I don't have a history or vested interest in this. Callahan thought you'd need someone to walk you through it. It would be faster, and you could ask questions that hopefully I have answers for. I also have it on good authority that you can be bribed with food. I brought Vietnamese." Ryan lifted the box a bit as if to show Gail the bag of takeout better.

Gail gestured with her arm into her apartment stepping back slightly. "Fine. Come in."

Ryan walked in and looked around. It was…nondescript. This was not a living space that had a lot of personal touches. She wouldn't be surprised if the pictures on the shelves still had the photographs that came in the frames. She looked to the kitchen counter. There was a bottle of tequila and a lone shot glass.

"A tequila girl. I can get behind that. Limes?" Ryan asked as she put the box on the counter.

"No limes."

"Alright. That's fine. Can I have one? Like I said, I brought you a late lunch. I figured you've been undercover and your fridge would be bare. I've got bahn mi sandwiches and avocado shakes."

A look crossed Gail's face, "Holly."

"Yeah. I hope you don't mind."

"My stomach has no pride. Let me put this away." Gail took the gun out of her waistband and walked toward her bedroom. When she came back, Ryan had put the box on the living room coffee table and had the sandwiches and shakes out of the bag on the kitchen counter.

Ryan pointed, "That one is yours."

Gail opened it and took a bite. She moaned. "She remembered."

Ryan laughed. "She warned me about that."

"Wha'?" Gail said around a mouth full of sandwich.

Ryan gestured with her sandwich. "She said you had a special relationship with food."

"Really. I love being discussed by people. It's my favorite thing," Gail said sarcastically as she took another bite.

"I wouldn't call it a discussion."

"How did you know I hadn't already gotten food?"

"Don't be coy and pretend you didn't see the tail this afternoon."

"I finally spotted it. I can't believe I didn't see one before," Gail said as she continued to eat.

"Don't feel bad. They had you under surveillance when you were undercover but no more so than on a normal op. There were three cars they used this morning as part of the tail. Your mother insisted. Said that you could spot a tail since you were eight or something."

"Yeah, well, she should know. She taught me."

"So, I understand you're mad at Oliver Shaw and Traci Nash. Anyone else?"

"Are you asking for Holly?" Gail arched her eyebrow.

"No," Ryan shook her head. "I was thinking about your mother, your family."

"Eh, I'm used to it from her. What I don't understand is why my father helped me this morning, whether he did it behind Superintendent Mom's back or with her approval." Gail walked to the cabinet by the sink, took out another shot glass, and set it down in front of Ryan. She filled it and then said, "So, why are you here?"

"I told you. They thought…"

"No. I mean in Toronto. Why now? Six months into it." Gail filled her shot glass and gestured with it.

Ryan picked hers up and they clinked them together and then did the shots. Ryan grimaced, "I'm going to buy you some decent tequila, Peck. God, that was like rubbing alcohol."

"I thought you feebies were tough."

"I'm a Texan before I'm a 'feebie'. We take our tequila very seriously."

"Nice try. Why are you in Toronto?"

"Honest to God, I wasn't trying to distract you. That tequila is criminal. I'm surprised you have any stomach lining left. Do you have anything else?"

Gail pointed to a cabinet. "There's some bourbon in there if you want it."

"That'll work." Ryan walked to the cabinet and took out the bottle. She smiled to herself when she examined it. She found a glass, got some ice out of the refrigerator, and poured herself what her father would have called "two fingers" of whiskey.

Ryan took a drink and began speaking, "We're out of ideas. We have four victims so far, and are expecting a fifth sooner than later. The time interval has shrunk with every murder. Holly and her team have done their best but the bodies are washed before they're dumped which so far has removed any evidence from them except the type of soap and shampoo the killer uses to clean them. The investigators, myself included, have looked at this every way we can think of, and we've hit a dead end. All the victims were abducted and drugged with Ketamine and ACP. Kept for a period between 24 &amp; 48 hours, and their bodies dumped in wooded areas wrapped in plastic. Just like Perik's victims. Holly recognized the pattern immediately.

"I pushed for them to involve Perik, involve you. I know it's what the killer wants, but I didn't see another way around it. Sometimes you have to play the game by their rules for a while. I couldn't stand in front of another mother and tell her 'I'm very sorry for your loss.' I just couldn't.

"I felt like this…this Hail Mary, my boss calls it, was our only option. Perik threw a wrench in it when he said he'd only meet with Holly. She refused. She flat out refused. But when the last body showed up two weeks ago, she finally relented."

"Do you know why?"

"I think it had to do with the fact that the killer had superglued your fingerprints on the victim. So when we ran her ident, it came back 'Gail Peck.'"

"No shit?"

"No shit," Ryan said without humor.

"Why all the effort around keeping me out of it?"

"You'll have to ask your mother and Holly that. Like I said before, I don't have a dog in this fight."

"Dogfighting? Really, Parker?"

"It _is_ kind of a barbaric expression isn't it?" Ryan smiled. "I'll watch it from now on."

"Do that. C'mon, walk me through these files. You're right it'll be quicker, but no editorializing. I want to see it through my eyes not yours."

"You got it."

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

There were four victims. The first one was Brittany Lynn Roberts- street name Candy-, a twenty-five year old prostitute with a meth habit. She had been drugged with a mixture of Ketamine and ACP, kept for a period between 24-28 hours, sexually assaulted, and her body, wrapped in plastic, dumped in a public park. She looked enough like Gail to be her sister.

Victim number two was Lily Broussard, a twenty-six year old escort who was working her way through vet school. Same M.O. as the first victim. She was dumped near a walking trail. Killed two months after Brittany. She also resembled Gail. She had apparently made an appointment with her killer. Still, even knowing that, they had come up empty.

Victim three was Barbara Bennett, a twenty-eight year old car salesman. She threw a wrench into the prostitute theory. She was killed just shy of two months after Broussard and kept at least 48 hours. Otherwise, the M.O. was the same. She looked enough like Gail to make a casual observer look twice.

Victim four was Julie Hammond, an Oakland police officer. She was killed a month and a half after Bennett. Hammond had been off-duty and when she didn't show up for her shift, her co-workers had found evidence of a struggle in her apartment. She had been abducted around two a.m. She had been texting prior to that and never responded to the return text.

"They're all me," Gail said, as she rubbed her hands over her face. She and Ryan had moved to the couch so that Ryan could walk her through the case files.

"Yeah, I know. It's gotta be creepy seeing people who look so much like you dead."

"No. That's not it. I mean, I've been all these women. My first undercover assignment I was a street prostitute. The one where Perik abducted me I was an escort. We ran a warrant scam and I was supposed to be a car salesman." Gail picked up the photos of Hammond's apartment. "I've seen the crime scene photos of Andy's apartment after I was taken. These are almost a dead-on match. Tell me that you guys noticed this."

Ryan blew out a breath. "Yeah, that one we got. We missed the hooker and car salesman though. So this is tied to you more closely than we even thought. The killer is killing you over and over."

"Awesome."

"Gail, I'm sorry…"

"Don't. Don't start. It's shitty and it sucks but I'm not dead. It's not my fault. All I can do is deal with what is, and what's under my control."

"That sounds…surprisingly healthy."

"Yeah. Three years of therapy. Who knew the shit worked?"

Ryan laughed. "Yeah. Who knew?"

"So the last one…Hammond. She had my fingerprints."

"Yeah. We got called out early that morning around six. She couldn't have been gone more than 28 hours. I drove Holly to the crime scene," Ryan said, and didn't miss the hurt that flashed briefly on Gail's face but continued, "By the time we got there, the task force techs were processing. They hadn't moved the body but one of the other detectives asked them if they had an ident yet and the idiot tech hadn't been on the taskforce long and he just yelled out 'Gail Peck.'"

"I know some people who'd be pleased to hear that."

"Yeah, well, Holly Stewart isn't one of them. I've never seen her that angry. She walked over and examined the body and demanded that he run it again. When it came back the same. She found the false fingerprints herself. In the field. Dressed him down like he was a wet-behind-the-ears rookie."

"I'm sorry she had to go through that. I'm sorry she's going through any of this."

"What was that you just said? Deal with what is. Deal with what you can control. None of this is in your control. Believe me, if it was, I'd have arrested you by now."

Gail laughed a hollow laugh, "Well, I guess we better find you a target for your aggression."

"Damn Skippy."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I still don't own Rookie Blue or Rookie Blue's characters. Bailey is still the awesomest beta around. But ****Traci wanted me to tell you that I love reviews and to, in her words, "keep 'em comin'".**

Traci and Holly sat side by side in the bar of Holly's hotel. Each lost in their own thoughts. Thoughts that centered on a certain detective.

Holly finally broke the silence, "Traci, I'm sorry. I knew I was putting you in a bad position. I didn't mean to damage your friendship with Gail."

"Don't. I knew what I was doing. You needed a friend you could trust," Traci said as she placed her hand over Holly's on the bar and squeezed lightly then let go.

"You've been friends for so long, Traci. I know she considers you a good friend. Surely, she'll forgive you. When I see her, I can try to…"

Traci shook her head slowly, "Holly, Gail's a Peck."

"God, I wish people would quit telling me that! She's more than her last name. You know that!"

"Whoa there girl, I do know. How much do you know about Gail's family?"

"Honestly? Not a lot."

"Okay. Some of this comes from knowing Gail, and some of it comes from having dated Steve. When we were in our rookie year, Andy and Chris caused an investigation of Steve's partner. Steve got very offended by it. He had asked them to let him take care of it. He made Gail choose between him and Chris, who she was dating at the time."

"What do you mean?"

"He made her pick who she was going to be loyal to…Loyalty, is like duty to them. They hold it above a lot of things. Two years ago, Steve shared some information with me. It affected Dex, Leo's dad, and I owed it to Leo to make sure that his dad was okay. Steve…he…he didn't see it that way. He saw it as a betrayal of our relationship.

"If you ask Gail what she likes about herself, she'll tell you that she's loyal. That's what made the Nick thing and cheating on him so hard for her. It's why Perik was able to read the guilt on her face when she went into that interrogation room with him before. She violated the Peck code."

"What's that?" Holly asked.

Traci ticked them off on her fingers, "Know who you are. Work harder than everyone else. Don't screw up. In that order. That was the advice her mother gave her. In Gail's mind, not being loyal is to screw up."

"So…she perceives that you chose me over her," Holly stated.

"Yes."

"But, what if I try to explain?"

"Holly, you don't understand. It doesn't matter why I did it. The fact is that I made my 'alliance'. Gail would think that this means that I don't have her back. She won't trust me again easily, if ever," Traci said, as she saw tears well up in Holly's eyes.

"I'm so, so, sorry, Trace. So sorry."

"Hey, you needed someone to talk to. Someone you could trust. I'm glad you trusted me. I'm sorry Gail doesn't see it that way. I knew she would have an issue with it. I did it anyway. I'd probably do it again. I don't know that I ever agreed with keeping her out of the loop…"

"Trace…"

"I know you had your reasons, Holly, but look at it from her perspective. She's a decorated police officer. She's a phenomenal detective. You and her mother conspiring to keep this from her…makes her look like a child."

"That's not why…"

"Holly, I'm not telling you _why_ you did it. I'm telling you what it looks like."

Holly took a deep breath and said, "I wonder why out of all of that, the thing you said that bothers me the most is that Elaine and I 'conspired' to keep this from her."

"Because you know about Gail's relationship with her mother?" Traci smiled sadly. "Do you think she's shot Ryan yet?"

"I doubt it," Holly laughed. "I sent Ryan over there with her favorite Vietnamese meal. You know the way around Gail is through her stomach." Traci laughed in response to that. Holly continued, "Plus, they're cut from the same cloth."

"Whaddya mean?"

"Stubborn. Dedicated. Soft spot for kids. Come from law enforcement families. Ryan's father and grandfather were Texas Rangers."

"And both of them are drop dead gorgeous."

"That too," Holly said, as she took a large drink of her Manhattan not looking at Traci. Traci was dying to ask more about the enigmatic Special Agent but decided that she was not about to know more than Gail did about Holly anytime in the near future. She was in enough trouble already.

"Trace, even though I tried to stay on task, all I could think when I was in that room today with that monster was about what he did, and almost did to Gail." Holly took a deep breath and continued, "When we were together, some nights she'd whimper in her sleep. Some nights she'd wake up screaming. I…God, I'm sorry. I know this is especially hard for you. I shouldn't be dumping this on you."

"What Perik took from me doesn't make Gail's pain any less. I love Gail like a sister. I know she still feels needlessly guilty about it. I don't blame her. I never have. None of us ever have, except Gail."

"I know," Holly sighed.

"Yeah. So what's the plan for tomorrow?" Traci asked.

"We're supposed to report at 9am in the conference room at 15. According to Luke, we're going to be meeting to discuss the old Perik cases; see if any of them have any connection to our current cases that we missed."

"Will Gail be there?"

"That's what he said. He said she would. He told me to prepare myself for it." Holly held up a finger to the bartender to order another drink.

"Should you…"

"Trace, I'm…Ryan told me the other day I'm holding myself together with duct tape and bailing wire, whatever the hell that means. But it feels accurate. I don't want to be here. I don't want to see her like this. I…don't want her to see me like this. So I'm going to drink until I can go upstairs and not dream."

Traci put her hand back on Holly's. "Holly, if Gail is going to be there tomorrow, she's going to have to give her account of her abduction and Jer…Jerry's stabbing. I think we both need to prepare ourselves for that."

"Hey, make mine a double, and another for my friend here," Holly called to the bartender as she squeezed Traci's hand tightly. "I know. I know, Traci. We'll get to the other side of this. Maybe not as the same people that we were, but we're gonna get there."

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Gail hated public speaking. More than hated. It petrified her. She had gotten out of giving her speech when she was at the academy. She dodged every speech her mother tried forcing her into giving. Every one that she could anyway. Now, as she sat in the conference room at 15, she wondered if she'd have a Pitch Perfect projectile vomiting episode.

She watched warily as Ryan strode confidently into the room, accompanied by Holly, who, when she saw Gail, averted her eyes. _Figures._ Ryan was at Gail's apartment late last night going over the case files. Gail had made suggestions and gone over as much of her personal history with Ryan as she had with anyone. Ryan was sorta perfect and she hated her for it just a little bit. She was everything Gail wasn't: confident, easy-going, warm, and open. At least that's the way Gail saw her.

Honestly though, the only reason that she could really think of to hate Ryan was Holly. Ryan had carefully avoided almost any way to bring Holly into the conversation last night, with the exception of her telling Gail about the fingerprint incident and the dressing down of the idiot tech. She kept any mention of Holly completely professional and that told Gail all she needed to know about their relationship. Nobody was that professional. Gail should know. She had lived with her mother, who bled police blue, but wasn't professional all the time.

Gail looked around the room. Tracy and Oliver were here, along with two men she assumed were with the FBI. Luke was setting up his part of the board with the older Perik cases. Ryan had evidently already set up her side of the board with the new cases from the unsub. Gail was looking it over when none other than Elaine Peck walked into the room.

"Gail, I'd like to speak with you for a moment before we get started, please. Oliver, may we use your office?" Elaine asked but didn't wait for Oliver to answer or to see if Gail was going to follow before she turned on her heel and walked out of the room. Gail rose and reluctantly followed her.

"Who was that?" Ryan asked as her eyebrows drew together.

"That, was Superintendent Elaine Peck." Oliver answered with a frown.

"Gail's mother?" Ryan asked.

"The one and the same." Traci answered.

"She was…reptilian. Is that a word?" Ryan questioned.

"It is and it suits her." Holly stated. "Oliver, could you?"

"It's better for Gail if there are no witnesses. She doesn't like for anyone to see or comment I've learned."

"Oh," Holly looked crestfallen.

"She'll be fine," Oliver squeezed Holly's shoulder.

Ten minutes later Gail propelled herself into the conference room alone and landed in a seat with all the grace and forethought of a five year old. The look on her face matched. Holly hid a smirk behind her hand. Gail had won, but obviously the effects of the conflict lingered. Ryan raised an eyebrow at Holly who subtly shook her head. Gail was lost in her own world and missed the exchange.

Luke stepped up to the podium and began. "Folks, I think everyone here knows each other with the exception of Gail Peck. Gail, you know the guys from 15, and Holly and Ryan. The two men you do not know are from the FBI: Marc Trask and Brandon Bishop. Marc is a Special Agent assigned to the violent crimes taskforce. Brandon is a Special Agent who specializes in profiling. Both of them have been with Ryan's unit since the second victim in the States.

"Marc and Brandon, this is Gail Peck the only survivor of the Ross Perik abductions that we've found."

"Boys," Gail twirled her index finger in the air in greeting. They nodded in response. Marc was a burly six feet with dark brown hair. Brandon was a tall and gangly ginger and looked more like a basketball player than a federal agent.

"Today, I'm going to present what we know about Ross Perik and see if any of these cases are relevant to your current ones. We began…" Luke started, but Gail could recite the details from memory. She didn't need to go over it one more time. She needed to prepare for what came next. She had to do what came next. She was sure that Holly was in danger, but she was sure that she, Gail, was Perik's endgame. If being part of this investigation meant putting her biggest failure up in neon lights, that's exactly what she would do. If that was the toll to be paid, then she'd pay it. She would do whatever it took to keep Holly safe.

"Perik's last abduction was Gail Peck, a police officer from 15 Division. He was unaware that she was a police officer at the time of her abduction. He confirmed in subsequent interviews that he believed her to be an escort at the time he decided to abduct her. He stated that he eavesdropped on her as she left a voicemail for Nick Collins while she rode in the back of his cab. He used this information to determine the apartment she was staying in for the night and came back a few minutes later prepared to abduct her. He had drugs, prepared syringes of ketamine and ACP, and zip ties. There was a struggle and he drugged her and bound her. Officer McNally, also of 15 Division, came home unexpectedly and he drugged her as well, but left her. During the search for Gail, one of 15's detectives, Jerry Barber, contacted Ross Perik as a routine part of the investigation. He was fatally stabbed, but was able to plant his phone on Perik to facilitate the return of then Officer Peck. Gail? Would you like to add anything?" Luke asked almost gently. Gail hated that they still tiptoed around her. She hated that more than public speaking.

She stood and walked to the podium, resolutely only looking at the FBI agents directly in front of her, "I guess I have a unique perspective on what one of their 'victims' feels like. I struggled with Perik in Andy's, Officer McNally's, apartment, but after he dosed me, I didn't feel like I was part of my body anymore. I felt, they told me the term is 'disassociated' from it, like I was apart from it. I couldn't control my movements. There was a helplessness to it that I've never experienced before or since.

"When I woke up in that basement, I was blindfolded and bound to a table. He spoke to me like someone who had practice speaking to women that way. It was terrifying. I tried using all the training I'd received at the academy, but I couldn't get my brain to engage enough. I…begged…him not to dose me again. He did anyway. I was in no way in control of what happened in that basement.

"The next time he came down, he was angry. Angry that I was a police officer. He dragged me upstairs with a gag in my mouth and my hands bound. My arms and legs wouldn't work. My legs felt like they could barely support me. Jerry…Detective Barber charged Perik. That must have been when he put the phone in his pocket. Perik fought him off. I don't think his heartrate even increased. His entire demeanor was of that of someone going on a vacation, except that he was angry with me that he'd been inconvenienced. He had no remorse for killing Detective Barber that I could see.

"He took me to his car and shoved me in the trunk. I passed out and I'm not sure how much time had passed. The trunk was dark and smelled like exhaust fumes and decomp, but honestly, I was having some pretty weird hallucinations at that point from the drugs, so I'm not sure. The next thing I know Chris and Nick are pulling me out of the trunk."

"Questions?" Luke asked. No one offered any.

"I can tell you this. If this apprentice is linked to Perik, and I believe that he is, then we're dealing with a highly intelligent sociopath that likes order and being prepared for all contingencies." Gail sat down, her head bowed. She missed Traci and Holly silently crying in the back.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Folks, for those of you that do not know, Stewart is the name of a type of tartan or plaid. I myself am partial to Royal Stewart. Thanks to beta Bailey for pointing out that not everyone would know that. Alas, I'm unable to blame Bailey for any mistakes. Those are all mine.**

It had been a week since the meeting where her mother had ambushed her before she had rehashed her abduction. Elaine had wanted Gail to take an undercover assignment on the other side of the country. She had already arranged it. Gail flatly refused.

"_Gail, can't you see that I only want what's best for you? This will get you away from this situation and will further your career!" Elaine shouted._

"_No, Mother. This is running. I will NOT run away from this. This psychopath is killing women that look like me. Me! I am a part of it whether I'm here or not. I'm his fucking muse or something."_

"_Abigail!"_

"_Mother, I'm a grown woman. 'fucking' is a word."_

"_It's not ladylike."_

"_I really don't give a damn, about what is, and is not, ladylike. You're changing the subject. I have to do my part to stop this. You should understand that. You of all people. This is mine to do. This is my duty. My duty, Mother," Gail almost pleaded but caught herself just in time. "You're the one who preached 'duty, duty, duty' to me like it was our religion."_

"_Gail, darling, this is not the same. This is foolhardy. You're only going to complicate this investigation. Everyone is going to be focused on you and not solving the case. Surely, you must see that. That's one of the reasons I agreed with Dr. Stewart that you wouldn't know about her visit here."_

"_You what?" Gail said in a tone that, had her mother known her better, would have signaled her she was on shaky ground._

"_She was very explicit that she didn't want you to know about her visit. I had already made sure you did not know about the unfortunate cases in the States…"_

"_So you're telling me you spoke with Holly about this specifically?! The two of you conspired to keep me in the dark?! While women were dying simply for looking like me!" Gail shouted._

"_Darling, that's not the important part," Elaine began._

"_It's the only part mother. I am a goddamn police detective. I have the highest closure rate in metro Toronto. I was abducted by a psycho and a good man died to save me. I live everyday with that on my shoulders. My life has to matter because Jerry Barber had to die for something, someone, who matters. You treating me like a screw-up who should run away from her responsibilities is…insulting, to me as a person, as a police officer, and as a goddamn Peck."_

The buzzing of her cell phone woke Gail. Her life has been put on hold until the Perik copycat was caught because her police protective detail meant that the only active case she can be involved in is this one. That meant, working with Holly and being torn wanting to see Holly but not wanting to see Holly. Gail had stayed within the confines of 15, whereas Holly was mostly in the lab going over old evidence. The arrangement seemed to be working for Holly. In fact, she had yet to speak to Gail, which was, if Gail was honest with herself, and she was trying to be more honest with herself these days, devastating. Holly not speaking to her was devastating. There was no way around it. So here she was with a bitch of a hangover at ten a.m. on a Saturday morning. She drank an inordinate amount of tequila last night, an inordinate amount of tequila even for Gail Peck.

"Peck, we've got a body," Luke's voice sounded incredibly loud on the phone.

"Where?" she rasped out. The backs of her eyelids felt like they were made of sandpaper.

"I'm coming to pick you up. I'm fifteen minutes away from your place. It's on the way. Be ready." Luke hung up before Gail could respond.

Twenty-five minutes later Gail was standing in a remote area of a large city park, her bloodshot eyes hidden behind aviators, waiting on someone from the morgue to get there so that they could begin examining the body. She was in combat boots, jeans and a periwinkle v-neck shirt with long sleeves. She had barely managed to get her hair to lay down before Luke arrived at her apartment.

"Who are they sending?" Gail asked, trying to keep the fact that she actually cared out of her voice.

"Holly has been granted privileges here because of her history and also because of her familiarity to this case so it'll be her. Is that a problem, Peck?"

"Nope."

They stood in stony silence for a while until a large black SUV pulled up in the parking lot across the meadow. Gail recognized Holly immediately. She exited the passenger side dressed in a plaid shirt with a cream tank underneath and dark blue jeans. _Stewart plaid? Nice one Holly. _

A woman that looked a lot like Ryan got out of the driver's side but she was wearing a large cowboy hat, a white shirt, jeans, and Gail would bet cowboy boots. _She's dressed like a cowboy? Could she get anymore cliché? _Gail couldn't help it, she snorted.

Luke whipped around, "What?"

"Nothing," Gail answered as she shook her head.

The two figures made their way across the green expanse. Holly was carrying a navy blue "lunchbox" instead of the red one she had carried the day they met. The small change made Gail inexplicably sad. Gail shook her head from side to side to try to shake off the feeling. Ryan nodded as they reached them. Before she could say anything, Gail asked, "Did the hat get its own suitcase?" Out the corner of her eye she saw Holly smirk. She felt warm all over.

"No. She wore it through security. She _claims_ it's good luck," Holly answered for Ryan.

Gail would do anything to keep Holly talking to her, even if it was about Ryan. She looked Ryan up and down. "So, you're dressed like you're about to star in Lonesome Dove 4 because it's good luck?" Gail taunted Ryan. She saw Holly stifle a giggle.

"No. We were horseback riding. I thought it would be relaxing," Ryan responded calmly.

If the 'we' pricked Gail's heart a little bit, she didn't let it show. "That's what that smell is," Gail retorted. Holly laughed out loud. It washed over Gail like warm water and made her tingly.

"You know you're included in this, right?" Ryan arched her eyebrow and turned to Holly.

"Oh, I know. It's also not the first time Gail has called me smelly." Holly answered Ryan never looking at Gail.

Ryan left Holly's comment alone, "So you have an issue with how we're dressed, Peck?" Ryan asked.

"Not at all. To each their own," Gail answered. She did have an issue with how close they seemed to be. She wanted to know when Ryan and Holly became a 'we' but none of that mattered now. She had to avoid making this more awkward, "So the hat's good luck then?" _There that was better_.

"It _is_ good luck. I will have you know, I was wearing this hat when I caught the Abilene Creeper," Ryan stated affronted.

"Whatever. It wasn't good luck for her," Gail gestured to the body encased in plastic on the ground. _Shit! That was awkward sauce._ Gail pressed on, "She was found early this morning by a jogger. Because of the details Luke got called, and brought me." Gail looked directly at Holly, "Is my presence here going to be a problem for you?"

Holly met her eyes resolutely, "No."

"Okay then. I'll let you get to it," Gail said, as Ryan and Luke observed the exchange silently.

Gail saw Holly take a deep breath as she crouched down next to the body. It was encased in plastic, what Gail assumed to be the head, partially obscured by some bushes it was shoved under. Holly called to a crime scene tech, "Greg, can you make sure when they move the body, we get some soil samples?"

"Yes, Dr. Stewart," he answered.

"Do we have that roll of plastic so I can unwrap the body for prelim exam here?" Holly asked.

"Yes, Dr. Stewart. I have it here. Would you like me to…?"

"Please."

They spread the plastic out under the body. Trying not to disturb it too much. Holly carefully unwrapped the body and then scrambled backwards quickly. Gail had been to several crime scenes where Holly was the pathologist in charge of the body. There was even the melted guy Traci told her about in the bathtub. She'd never seen or heard of Holly reacting that way. She couldn't help herself she moved toward Holly intent on checking on her. "Holly…" Gail started but was interrupted by Ryan.

"Holls, what is it?" Ryan asked as she walked over to Holly and put her hands on her shoulders and crouched down between Holly's outstretched legs eye level with Holly who was sitting down with her legs in front of her bent at the knee. Holly pointed wordlessly at the body.

Gail walked over and looked down at the body. She was naked. _Did you miss me, Holly?_ was carved into the woman's abdomen above her belly button and underneath it over her right hip bone was, _Tell Gail I'll see her soon._ Gail looked at the woman's face, she was Gail's doppelgänger. She even had black hair. "Well shit," Gail breathed out.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Trigger warnings for mentions of abduction, assault and rape. Again, not much worse than you'd hear on Rookie Blue but I wanted to put this up just in case. I can never thank bailchab enough for being beta.**

Gail sat silently in the autopsy suite observing Holly. After Ryan calmed her down, Holly hadn't shown any other emotion at the scene. She'd become the consummate professional that she always was. Gail was glad that someone had helped Holly. She wished it had been her, but it wasn't, and she was dealing with that. Ryan and Luke had stayed to canvas the neighborhood surrounding the park. So once again, Gail volunteered to go to the morgue. Gail wanted to observe the autopsy, see if she could learn anything, but she found herself watching Holly more than watching the body. It reminded her of that first day, but today she didn't want to be here in the morgue, much less live here.

"I can hear the hamster wheel, Gail. What are you thinking?" Holly asked, as she removed the liver and put it in the scale tray.

"I was thinking about the first day I was here with you," Gail replied looking at the back of Holly's head.

"Hmmm…"

"Don't worry, Holly. I'm not going to take us on a trip down memory lane. I know why we're here," Gail exhaled heavily. "What can you tell me about her?" Holly turned back to look at Gail, and Gail clarified, "the victim. What can you tell me about the victim?"

Holly removed the liver from the scale, put it in a container, and took a cleansing breath. "She's in her twenties. Had a last meal that consisted of what I think was some pretty bad Mexican food and maybe a Twinkie? There's nothing quite like yellow dye number 5. I won't be sure until I get the results back, but that's my best guess right now."

"I thought you didn't guess."

"I guess all the time. I just get to call it hypothesizing," Holly walked back over to the body.

Gail walked closer to the body her arms folded across her chest. "Was she tied up?"

"Yes."

"Raped?"

"Yes," Holly answered and Gail closed her eyes. "Gail, I'm sorry."

"It's not about me; or at least it's not about my feelings or how I feel about it. Focus on her. I'll wait out in the hallway if you need me to," Gail turned to leave.

"Don't go," Holly said softly and Gail turned to face her. "It's easier with you here…Easier to know it's not you on the table when you're here. Stay."

"Okay. I'll sit over here," Gail gestured to the desk and then sat on top of it.

"Your hair suits you. It brings out your eyes," Holly said quietly, then dipped her head and turned back to the body.

"Thanks," Gail wanted to say more. She wanted to tell Holly how beautiful she was even now, how sorry she was that Holly was going through this because of her, but she couldn't. She couldn't make her throat work around the lump in it. So she sat there silently and watched.

Holly was meticulous. Gail knew that. She loved to watch her work. She was always in awe of how much information she took in and cataloged. She had a precision that an untrained observer would think was callousness. Lucky for Gail, she was a trained observer. She saw the care. She saw the brilliance. She saw the pity cross Holly's face every now and then. She saw the magnificence that was Holly Stewart. _Goddammit._

"Whoa Nellie."

Gail jumped up off the desk and stood beside Holly. "What? Whoa Nellie what?"

"She had a hair with a root ball embedded in her teeth. We've got trace and possibly DNA!" Holly turned to Gail beaming.

"I'll call Luke," Gail took out her phone.

"Wait. We won't know anything for a while. This is the first trace evidence that we've recovered from one of the victims. She's been washed like they all have, but the killer missed this. She put up a hell of a fight to get this in her teeth," Holly carefully collected the blonde hair in a small specimen cup.

"So that's something else you can tell me about her…"

"What?" Holly looked up.

"That she was a fighter."

"Yeah, she was a fighter. A hell of a fighter," Holly looked at the body "We won't let you down. You hear me? We're gonna make this maniac pay. Aren't we, Gail?"

"Yeah. We're gonna make 'em pay," Gail walked over and touched Holly on the shoulder. Touched Holly for the first time since she left for San Francisco, and looked down at the victim, "You have the best forensic pathologist I've ever seen working for you."

Gail realized what she was doing and stepped away abruptly. She spun around and pulled out her phone and dialed Luke to cover up her momentary lapse. "Luke, Holly found a hair embedded in the victim's teeth. She's going to run it as soon as she can. We'll keep you posted, but I wanted to update you. Yeah, yeah. How's Hop-Along? Shut up," Gail snapped the phone shut.

"Gail…"

"Hey, I'm going to go and get some cheesepuffs or something. You want anything? Are you hungry?" Gail walked toward the door briskly, "Did you get a chance to eat this morning before you went horseback riding? You need to eat you know."

"I'm fine, Gail. Gail, we…"

"I'm going to get something out of your crappy vending machines. Luke and Ryan should be here in about two hours. Will you have something to tell them then?"

"Yes. We won't have DNA results on the hair then, but I'll be done with the autopsy and can give them all of that. I'm soaking her fingertips in a solution to remove the fake fingerprints – evidently, that's something we'll have to contend with from now on. Hopefully, I'll have an ID by the time they get here."

"Okay then. I'm just going to run out and get some food."

"Gail…" Holly started and Gail stopped walking and looked at her, "Get something for your hangover. You look miserable." Gail just nodded and quickly walked out.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Luke and Ryan had finished the canvas and were heading to the morgue in Luke's car. Ryan was fisting her hands in her hair in the passenger seat. She stopped abruptly and turned to him, "How did no one see anything? That park is in the middle of the city in a fairly good neighborhood. This is frustrating as all hell."

"You knew it was a long shot. No one saw anything with any of the other dump sites. I'm more concerned that the victim's hair was dark. Just like Gail's. Peck changed her hair for the undercover assignment. She was supposed to come back to work the day Holly interviewed Perik. The first time Gail Peck had that hair as Gail was that day. You know what that means. The killer's seen Gail, or he has someone who's seen Gail."

"Yes, Luke, I know what that means. I'm pretty sure Marc and Brandon know what that means; Holly knows what that means; and even Gail knows what that means. What I'm hoping is that the killer dyed the hair. Not was able to stalk someone who fits Gail's description now. If that's the case, you have a leak in your department because that would have taken planning and would have had to have started when Gail was still undercover."

"Well, we've got a leak somewhere. Have you asked your girlfriend about the batting cages crack Perik made?"

"Excuse me?"

"Oh. Is it a secret?"

"Any relationship I have, or don't have, with _Dr. Stewart_ isn't germane to this case."

"I bet it's germane to Peck."

"Can we focus here?"

"Well, we're going to need to ask _Dr. Stewart_ and _Detective Peck_ about it. You think we do it with them together or separate?"

"I don't know. I don't know what the best way to do it is. Maybe together…I just don't know. I need some distance from this. I can't figure out if the unsub is using Gail to get to Holly or Holly to get to Gail. I don't know what the endgame is," Ryan fisted her hand in her hair again.

"Yeah. I think they're both in a lot of danger but I don't have the answers either. Let's go see what Holly has for us at the morgue."

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

When Luke and Ryan arrived at the morgue, Gail was sitting in the chair in front of the desk. Holly was finishing the autopsy. Neither woman looked up when they entered. Ryan thought that if the tension in the room was any thicker, she could cut it with the knife she kept in her boot.

Luke spoke first, "Holly, what do you have?"

Holly continued stitching up the Y incision. "Victim is Margaret Davis. Age twenty-seven. She was killed about twelve hours ago. Tox screen indicates she was doped with the same mix of Ketamine and ACP as the other victims. I had to remove the false fingerprints from her fingertips before I could run her ident. When I first ran her, she came up as Gail in the system." Holly looked over at Gail briefly before continuing, "Her last meal was, I'm almost sure, Taco Bell beef tacos and a Twinkie."

"So not a health nut then," Ryan remarked.

"I wouldn't say that. She just didn't eat a great last meal. From what I can tell, she was probably someone who worked out a bit. She has callouses on her palms like I'd expect from someone who works out with free weights. You can see the muscle definition in her biceps and triceps muscles. Maybe it was her cheat day."

"Or maybe she worked out so she could eat like that," Gail threw in.

"Maybe," Ryan acknowledged.

"What else?" Luke asked.

"She was restrained and raped. You can see the bruising around her wrists and here along her thighs and there was some vaginal bruising as well. The words on her abdomen were written pre-mortem. Then she was given a fatal sedative dose.

"The good news is that she was a fighter. You can see some defensive bruising on her forearms here. A baton or similar weapon would cause this pattern. She must have put up a hell of a fight because she had a blonde hair behind her teeth. The rest of her was washed with the same brand of shampoo that the others were. Nothing under her fingernails, no semen or fluids but she had this hair between her teeth. I think the killer missed it. We're running it for DNA now."

"Great. Maybe we can get somewhere on this case now," Ryan started but was interrupted by Luke.

"Holly, can you tell me if the victim's hair was dyed recently?" Luke asked.

"Microscopically, yes, it looks like the hair was dyed very recently. I can't say for certain when so as you interview people that knew her, you should ask."

"Okay. We'll do that. There's something else that I need to ask both of you," Luke looked between Holly and Gail. "Holly, when you interviewed Perik, he made reference to you taking Gail to the batting cages. I was wondering who all knew about that. Who the two of you told about that."

"I sure as hell didn't tell anyone," Gail sneered.

"We did, Gail. We told the story at the Penny one night."

"When was this?" Ryan asked.

"Before we broke up the first time," Holly answered looking over at Gail guiltily.

"How many people were there?" Luke asked.

"Wait. I don't remember this," Gail held her hand up.

"It was a contest. Losers had to buy the winners' drinks all night. It had to be the thing that was most out of character that you did to win someone over. We beat Dov and Chloe, Steve and Traci, and Andy and Sam. Chris was the judge."

"Oh yeah. I remember that now. We got really, really, hammered and we went back to your place and…" Gail coughed. Holly blushed. "Yeah. I remember now. So those losers were there, and probably like a hundred and fifty other people. It was a Friday night. Anyone could have heard."

"Give me a timeframe when this happened," Luke ordered.

"Almost two years ago," Gail answered.

"And have either of you told anyone since then?" Ryan asked.

"No," They answered in unison.

"Shit," Luke exhaled.

"I think you mean Fuck," Ryan retorted. "Fucking needle in a haystack."


	7. Chapter 7

Gail woke up to the smell of coffee. She looked up from her bent position on her desk into Traci Nash's eyes. "Thought you could use this," Traci placed the coffee on Gail's desk in the detective's squad room.

Gail scrubbed her hands over her face, "What time is it?"

"About 8:30 in the morning. You been here all night?"

"Yeah. Luke was here too," Gail looked around.

"I saw him walking into the locker room. I think he was going to take a shower. Luke called me and the FBI boys yesterday and told us to come in today. He said Holly recovered a hair from the victim…Gail, are we okay?"

"I can work with you, Trace."

"But…"

"Trace, you should have told me."

"She begged me not to."

"And you've known me longer."

"Gail, you've seen her. She sounded like she looks, six months ago. I felt like I was the only person she was telling the whole truth to. She needed a friend. She was absolutely wrecked about it all. For what it's worth, I think she was trying to protect you."

"Traci, I'm a goddamned grown woman and a police officer. I can take care of myself." Gail started again seeing the look on Traci's face, "And, if Perik is the reason that she didn't tell me, the last person she should have gone to was you. The fucking _last_ person, Trace."

"Gail, I happened to call her the day they found the first body. She knew the details of the Perik cases. She was working in the lab when it happened. Did you know that?" In response Gail shook her head. Traci continued, "I could tell something was wrong. I _made_ her tell me."

"Whatever," Gail waved her had dismissively.

"No, not whatever. Don't 'Peck' this with me. I know this tears you up inside, Gail. I want to be your friend. Please, please let me be there for you like you were there for me when Jer died."

"It's my…"

"Don't start that shit. One person is responsible for Jerry's death and that's Ross Perik. Just like it's not your fault that these women happen to look like you. It's the killer's fault, and I'm pretty sure Ross Perik is involved."

"Fuck yes he is."

"So."

"So what?"

"So are we okay?"

Gail looked at her for a moment, considering, and relented. Traci was her best friend. Traci took care of Holly, whom Gail loved more than anyone. If Holly wouldn't share with Gail, she was glad she had shared with Traci. Gail finally said, "Yeah, we're okay. You're the only person besides me and Steve that understands 'Peckspectations.'"

* * *

Luke gestured to the murder board. Brandon, Marc, Traci, Ryan and Gail were all in the conference room. They had just had lunch, and the remnants were still scattered around the room. Ryan had her feet up on the table and was leaning back in her chair, her long jean clad legs ending in nicer cowboy boots than yesterday but cowboy boots nonetheless. "Have we found the connection between Margaret Davis and Gail?" Gail's head tilted toward Ryan in response. "You know what I mean, Peck."

Marc answered, "Talked with Davis' parents. Evidently she was an actress, but she worked as a waitress at a local restaurant &amp; bar to pay the bills. She served alcohol and that's why her prints were on file for identification. Gail indicated that 'waitress' was both an ex-profession and an undercover persona in the information that she gave us."

Brandon continued, "Parents, Lisa and Bradley Davis, address in Sunnybrook. They cut her off when she took her 'dabbling in theater' to the 'I wanna be an actress stage' and hadn't seen her recently enough to give us what color her hair was."

"Shit," Traci breathed out.

"Peckspectations, come in all kinds of packages evidently," Gail said. "Sunnybrook, pricey neighborhood…that's a lot of money to give up, a lot of privilege."

"This girl musta had a stubborn streak a mile wide," Ryan reached for her cup and sipped from the straw.

"Well, according to Holly, she was a hell of a fighter," Gail stated.

"Speaking of Dr. Stewart, has anybody heard from her yet today? I was hoping we'd have DNA results by now," Luke looked around at the group. Everyone shook their heads. "Parker, can you…?"

"Yeah, I'll give her a call." Ryan stood and walked out of the room.

Gail tried to not watch her walk out. She failed. She closed her eyes and tried not to think back to the time when it would have been her job to call and find out what Dr. Stewart had. She looked over and saw Traci staring at her. Damn Traci and her observation skills.

Luke and Marc started a side conversation. Brandon was working on his laptop. Traci leaned over to Gail, "You okay?"

"Yeah," Gail answered.

"Gail, I don't know if it's because I know you better, or if you just used to be a better liar but…"

"Shut up," Gail rolled her eyes.

Ryan walked back into the room, "Holly is on her way. She has the results. She wants to deliver them in person."

Holly arrived about ten minutes later, blue folder in hand, worried look on her face. Gail couldn't stop her reflexive smile at the sight of it. She remembered excuses and interrogation rooms. Gail closed her eyes and shook her head to stop the onslaught of memories.

Holly spoke, further breaking into Gail's thoughts, "Hey guys. The results were…interesting."

"What do you mean?" Brandon asked.

"The blonde hair came back with a female profile," Holly stated not looking at Gail.

"Wait? What?" Luke questioned furrowing his brow.

"Female. The hair came from a Caucasian woman," Holly said without further explanation.

"Holly, what does that mean?" Ryan asked.

"She's afraid it's mine," Gail answered looking from Ryan to Holly. "That's it, isn't it? You're afraid the killer planted it. You're afraid it's mine somehow," Gail's face was hard, unyielding.

"Yes," Holly sighed, still not looking Gail in the eyes. "Yes, that's a possibility. I'd like to take some samples and exclude you if possible."

"Whatever it takes. Let's get this over with. What do I have to do?" Gail asked.

"I just need to collect a few hairs from you just to be safe. It should only take one but…"

"You like to be thorough," Gail interrupted her with a sad smile.

"Yes," Holly finally looked Gail in the eyes and smiled back.

"So, what do I have to do?"

"I brought some gloves and some specimen collection bags. If you don't mind?" Holly asked as she approached.

"Like I said, whatever it takes."

Luke spoke up, "Why don't you two do that, and we'll all take a break for ten minutes. I could use some more coffee." Everyone but Holly and Gail left the room.

Holly placed the baggies on the table next to Gail. She took out a pair of latex gloves and tweezers. "So, I have to pull your hair out by the root. It shouldn't hurt any more than getting your eyebrows waxed."

"You know I hate that," Gail spoke looking up into Holly's eyes.

"I do. I'm sorry," Holly replied as she put on the gloves. Holly leaned down to better see what she was doing. They were inches from each other. "I'm going to part your hair, and extract a few hairs with the tweezers, okay?" Holly asked before making any move to touch Gail.

"Whatever. Just let's get it over with before they all get back. I don't need them looking at me like I'm some sort of lab rat too. 'Serial Killer Muse' was starting to grow on me," Gail looked away.

"Gail…" Holly said in a soft tone.

"C'mon Holly. Let's do this," Gail looked back at Holly and into her eyes. Holly reached out gently and brushed Gail's bangs off her forehead. Gail took a deep breath at the touch. Holly closed her eyes briefly. Then opened them again.

"Ready?" Holly asked.

"You know, the last time you were pulling my hair out was a much better experience."

Holly laughed a genuine throaty laugh. "It was," Holly nodded her head in agreement. "Thank you for making me laugh, Gail. You always seem to know how to make me laugh." Holly parted Gail's hair and prepared to extract the hairs she needed.

"I just think of the nerdiest thing I can think of, and let it spill out of my mouth."

"I would hardly classify our sex life as nerdy," Holly arched an eyebrow behind her glasses.

"No," Gail tried desperately to keep the quiver out of her voice "that's not the way I'd have described it." Holly chose that moment to pluck one of Gail's hairs. Gail hissed as Holly pulled a few more. "Nice distraction technique there, Lunchbox."

"Well, you were hissing so I don't think it was entirely successful," Holly flashed her little half-smile.

"Well, if you really wanted to distract me…" Gail started but was interrupted by Brandon coming back into the room to retrieve his laptop.

"I'm sorry. I just needed to get my laptop," he said.

"It's okay. We're finished anyway," Holly said backing away from Gail.

"Yeah, I guess we are. Aren't we?" Gail looked into Holly's eyes. Holly didn't reply. She just left the room.

* * *

Monday morning arrived bright and early with no further contact with Holly. Gail wasn't sure if she should be grateful or disappointed. Holly battered her system like a storm arriving on land. _The Dream_ was back in full force, but last night Ryan was in it too. She had started off spouting 'helpful' things like, "You should have been better…You should have protected her…You shouldn't have thrown her away," while Gail was making love to Holly. Then Gail was treated to an X-rated view of Holly and Ryan making love on repeat.

Gail arrived at her desk pissed off beyond all recognition. Unfortunately for Dov he was the first person she encountered that morning. "Morning, Gail."

"Shut your stupid face."

"Whoa, I haven't done anything today. What's wrong with you?"

"Why is it, when I respond to you the way that you deserve, you assume that _I_ have the problem? You. Have. A. Stupid. Face. Shut. The. Fuck. Up." Gail spewed out.

Traci walked in and could immediately determine what was going on. She walked up to Dov. "I've got this. Go."

"Gladly," Dov replied as he walked out of the room and left.

Traci sat at her desk opposite Gail. They were alone in the detectives' squad room. "Wanna tell me why you just took Dov's head off?"

Gail made a face. "I don't have to explain why I didn't ooze politeness to that idiot."

"Gail, he's one of your best friends…"

"And if that isn't a condemnation on my life…"

"Gail…"

"I don't want to talk about my _feelings_," Gail sneered derisively.

"Okay. I'll talk about them. You were different yesterday after Holly and you were in the conference room by yourselves. Did something happen?"

"No."

"I don't believe you," Traci sing-songed.

"I don't really care."

"Oh, but you do, Gail. I know you," Traci said as she looked at Gail solemnly.

"Trace," Gail huffed.

"Just tell me. It'll be easier all around."

"Fine. She had to pull the hair out of my head with tweezers, but she had to sort of brush my hair back. It was the first time she's touched me since she's been back. We talked…well, not really talked but we exchanged a few sentences back and forth. She said I can always make her laugh."

"That doesn't sound like a bad thing, Gail."

"I had made some crack that was…sexual in nature. That's what made her laugh. Then Brandon walked in and apologized, and she backed away like she was trying to get away from me and she said it was okay that Brandon was there and that we were finished and I said 'yeah, I guess we are' and she left."

"Oh, Gail, why would you say that?"

"I don't know. She…I can't think when I'm around her."

"Do you really think that?"

"She's with Ryan now."

"Has Holly told you that?"

"No."

"Has Ryan?"

"No, but it's obvious…"

"No, Gail. Until one of them tells you, you don't know."

"I had a stupid dream about them last night," Gail said and Traci looked at her and arched her eyebrow. "No," Gail said but Traci just waited her out. "Fine. I…I've had this dream. I call it _The Dream_. I've had it since Holly left. But in the dream we're…together…you know? It's awful sometimes. She never talks and I want her to talk in the dream. She talks a lot you know."

"Yes. She can. Especially, it seems, around you," Traci looked at Gail kindly.

"But last night…Ryan was there…and then…it…I wasn't part of the dream anymore. I was on the outside," Gail finished, begging Traci with her eyes to understand without her having to say more.

"Gail, it was just a dream. You know, I used to have dreams about Jer all the time. Waking up was the worst part. I talked to the psychologist about it. She said it was just my subconscious trying to work things out. You have to remember that whatever happens in your dream - it's _yours_. Not Holly's. You're trying to work things out in your own head. Now, Gail, here's the important part: do you still want to be with Holly?"

"She's in San Francisco and with Ryan."

"Not what I asked you."

"Yes. Yes, I do."

"Then that is another thing entirely. That's what you focus on."

"I think I need to focus on trying to figure out who is killing these women," Gail retorted sardonically.

"You're a great multitasker, Peck."

"I am that."

**A/N: Thank you all for all the favorite follows and reviews. I'm glad you all seem to be so passionate about my story. Thanks to bailchab for being the best beta around. Speaking of Bailey, after she read this, she threatened to throat punch Brandon. All I ask is that you limit any metaphorical throat punching to characters.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Thank you all for your favorites, follows and reviews. Thanks to Bailey for being the best beta. Neither Rookie Blue nor Rookie Blue's characters belong to me but all original characters and this twisted little story idea do. Sadly, that means all the mistakes belong to me as well. As always, I love to hear what you think good or bad.**

Brandy Cassidy was twenty-seven years old. With her short petite frame and black pixie haircut she looked a bit like a fairy except for the fact that she had full tattoo sleeves. She had slept with exactly five women and one man. None of the encounters were particularly satisfying; none of them could seem to find her clit much less her G-spot. She'd been in love exactly once in her life, but not with any of her lovers. So far, the love of her life had been Maggie Davis. So here she was at the police station because she owed Maggie that much.

She addressed the tiny redhead in uniform at the front desk, "Excuse me, I'm here because I saw the news this morning and I think I might have information about a crime."

"Thank you for coming in. What information do you have?" the officer asked.

"I saw Maggie Davis last week. The news said it was the night the police believe she was abducted," Brandy answered.

"Please have a seat. I'll get a detective to come up and walk you back," the officer answered. Brandy sat down in one of the chairs against the wall. "Gail, it's Chloe. Gail, Gail, don't hang up on me. I have someone here that says she saw Maggie Davis the night she was abducted."

Brandy was almost immediately escorted back to a room with several desks by a woman who could have been Maggie's sister except for the dark hair. There were two other women in the room. One was a striking ebony-skinned woman and the other was a statuesque blonde with legs that seems to go on for miles, in a charcoal grey suit. Brandy couldn't help it; she stared. The dark-haired woman with ice blue eyes, Gail…something avian…Peck, she remembered, spoke, "Brandy, this is Detective Traci Nash and this is Special Agent Ryan Parker of the FBI."

"The FBI?"

"Federal Bureau of Investigation," Ryan elaborated.

"I know. I just don't know why the FBI would be involved in Maggie's disappearance and death," Brandy explained.

"We had some similar cases in the States," Ryan said without further explanation.

Brandy was going to ask a question but the woman named Gail spoke first. "Brandy, have a seat and tell us what you know. Start from the beginning," Gail said as she and Brandy sat down. Traci and Ryan sat across from them.

"The beginning…well, the beginning was about six years ago. I met Maggie at University. She was, God she was...she was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen. I took 12 hours of theater as electives to be close to her. I'm a graphic designer. I spent two semesters doing set design and painting. I hate painting unless it's on a computer, but I had to be close to her."

"So…I'm waiting for this not to be creepy," Gail said.

"You're a barrel of monkeys, aren't you?" Brandy asked and Traci laughed.

"She can be. Pay no attention to Gail. She's not having a great day," Traci said.

"Sorry. Anyways, I've known her since University. I'm a graphic designer, but I bartend at The Blue Parrot part-time. I was tending bar there Thursday when Maggie came in."

"Wait. The Blue Parrot?" Gail asked.

"Why is that significant?" Ryan asked.

"It's a gay bar," Gail answered.

"Oh," Ryan said.

"So was Maggie with anyone when she was there?" Traci asked.

"Yeah, she came in and met a woman. She had bobbed blue hair. I think it was a wig. She had brown eyes. She was about 5'9"-5'10" looked a little athletic. Not as big as a hockey player but like a soccer player. They knew each other before. They kissed and hugged when the woman came up to the bar."

"Could you hear their conversation?" Ryan asked.

"No. I couldn't wait on them. I made Gwen wait on them. I felt like someone stabbed me in the heart…I never knew Maggie was into women. I couldn't watch her make out with that woman," Brandy explained.

"How did you know her for six years and not know she was into women?" Gail asked.

"Oh, I never spoke to Maggie. Unless you count the nervous giggles or bizarre random comments to the entire room. She made me so nervous, I sounded like, "Bak! Agak!"

"How very onomatopoeia of you," Gail commented.

"Look, you obviously don't know what it is to be a girl like me," Brandy responded hotly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Gail furrowed her brow.

"I mean, I bet someone you wouldn't look at twice has confessed feelings for you. You're that girl aren't you? You look enough like Maggie that you could be her sister…"

"Yeah, we noticed that," Ryan interrupted trying to derail the conversation but Brandy would not be deterred.

"You're all snark and smartass comments. Too cool for the rest of us. So gorgeous, you never notice us," Brandy was on the verge of tears.

Gail looked at her hard, "You don't know shit about me. So stop now while you're ahead. I know you're hurting and you feel like you've lost your chance at something. You're torn up inside about Maggie. I get that. But you don't know me."

"I'm sorry," Brandy apologized.

"It's fine. I've said worse over not getting my favorite donut," Gail waved her hand. "Alright?" Brandy nodded in response, "Brandy, tell us…did Maggie notice you or speak to you on Thursday?"

"No."

"And as far as you know, she'd never been in there before?" Traci asked.

"No. None of the other bartenders had seen her there. I asked," Brandy answered.

"Does The Blue Parrot have surveillance cameras?" Ryan probed.

"Yeah. We do. The manager can access them."

"I'm on it," Traci stood to leave. "Call me if we need to know anything else. I'm taking Luke with me. Should be fun," she smiled widely as she walked out of the room.

Ryan and Gail stayed with Brandy and took her through Thursday again asking her questions to get a timeline of the night and who waited on Maggie and the mystery woman.

"One last question, on Thursday, what color was Maggie's hair?" Ryan asked.

"Blonde. She kept it blonde. Why?" Brandy asked.

"I'm sorry. That's a part of the investigation that I can't share," Ryan answered kindly. "That's all I've got. Peck?"

"Nah. I think we've got everything." Gail stood and gestured with her hand to the door and Brandy stood. As they were walking toward the door, Gail spoke again, "Thank you for coming in, Brandy. You didn't have to do it. I'm hopeful that we're going to get something that leads to whomever killed Maggie," Gail said.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry about what I said earlier," Brandy looked down contritely.

"Don't worry about it. Like I said, I'm usually much meaner about a lot less. Okay?" Gail smiled at her and stopped their progress in the hallway right outside the detectives' office.

"Okay."

"Piece of advice. Don't write off girls just because of how they look. I'm sure Maggie had her own demons. I know I do, and I've spent a lot of Saturday nights alone," Gail said.

"Tell the truth, did someone you didn't expect confess their feelings for you?" Brandy smirked.

"Kinda."

"Kinda?"

"Yeah one guy was high on pain meds…" Gail trailed off.

"And?" Brandy leaned her head forward.

"And it took me by surprise."

"What happened?"

Gail laughed a humorless laugh, "My boyfriend broke up with me."

"Oh"

"Yeah, boyfriend's best friend."

"Whoa."

"Yeah."

"What happened? Did you go out with the best friend?"

"No. They picked each other over me."

"You made it sound like there was someone else. Someone else that confessed to having feelings for you."

"There was."

"And?"

"You only get one confession per visit," Gail snarked without heat.

"Ah, I see. Tell you what, I'm a really good listener. Come down to The Parrot. I'll pour you a drink or two, on me, and listen to all the sad stories you want to tell," Brandy flirted.

"And there was no onomatopoeia in that sentence. Have we had a breakthrough?" Gail smiled again.

"Maybe. Life is short. You're right; I never took a chance with Maggie. I'm trying to be braver," Brandy reached into her pocket and pulled out a business card and pen. She wrote her cell number on the back. "If you don't want to come down to the bar. Give me a call. I'll make it worth your while. There'll be donuts…I'll need to know your favorite though," Brandy handed the card to Gail.

"I'll think about it. I'm going to be pretty busy for the foreseeable future working on Maggie's case," Gail held up the card.

"Understood. Who knows though? It's a brave new world." And with that Brandy left Gail standing in the hallway.

Gail pivoted to go back into the detectives' office when she saw Ryan standing at the door staring over her head. Gail turned her head to see Holly holding a folder, standing about fifteen feet from where she and Brandy had been talking. _Unfuckingbelieveable_.

"Holly, hey, do you have that report?" Ryan asked hurriedly.

To Gail, Holly seemed to come out of a daze, "Yeah. I have it right here."

"Come on in and I'll get Brandon and Marc in here. I'll call Traci and Luke too. See if they are going to be back anytime soon. That way you'll only have to go over it once. We just had a pretty big break. We hope."

"Yeah. That's fine," Holly said without emotion.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Gail was sitting in her seat in the conference room seething. _I will not feel guilty about this. What right does she have to have that face? What if I was actually flirting? What right does she have to dictate who I can and can't flirt with? She won't even look at me now!_ She was about to get up, walk over and ask Holly some of those same questions with Luke and Traci walked into the conference room.

"We have the surveillance. Talked with the manager, Craig Winston, and with bartenders Gwen Eriksson and Samantha Spencer. They confirmed Brandy's story," Traci said as she walked in holding a bag of DVDs.

"We watched this at the bar," Luke held up a baggie with one disk in it. "Maggie Davis came in alone and met the woman with blue hair at the bar. The greeting was familiar," Luke said, but was interrupted by Traci.

"He means they started making out like they were sailors on leave. I think he's afraid of sounding like a pig," Traci explained.

Luke shot Traci a look and spoke, "We asked for all the surveillance that they had for the month. See if we could spot the other woman there scoping the place out. The surveillance over the bar is discreet. You wouldn't notice the camera if you didn't know it was there. So we'll all watch Thursday and then we'll split them up so they're more manageable."

"Sounds good," Marc responded.

"Before we start all that, I think Dr. Stewart is here with some results from the lab. We should probably let her get back before we start watching hours of tape," Brandon suggested.

"Thanks, Brandon," Holly said tiredly.

"By all means," Luke gestured that Holly should proceed.

Holly stood and leaned on one of the desks, "We processed the comparisons. We were able to eliminate Gail as a contributor. This means that the hair did not belong to Gail or Margaret Davis. I had them run another sample to make sure.

"My hypothesis is that the killer left this hair behind unintentionally, given the defensive wounds on the victim. None of the other victims had them. I think something did not go to plan," Holly looked over to Ryan.

"We have our mistake," Ryan looked directly into Holly's eyes.

"Yes. It seems so." Holly answered.

Ryan jumped up, pumped her fist in the air, and whooped, "Woop! We've got you, you bitch! You don't know it yet, but we've got you!"

Gail cut her eyes at Ryan and then looked at Traci. Traci just raised her eyebrows. "You guys seem to be ahead of us," Gail said.

"Sorry, Gail. Holly and I have gone over all the evidence. There's never been any physical evidence left on scene that wasn't meant to be there. We've been at this a long time, and this is the first piece that we think is actual evidence."

"So…" Luke started.

"The killer is a woman," Holly finished.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Hopefully, this chapter will answer some of the questions in the guest reviews. Not all of this chapter is 100% Bailey certified but she hasn't taken any of the heat for this; so if you don't like this chapter, we're blaming Bailey today. One time deal. :D Nah, still all mistakes are mine. I love the killer theories in the reviews. So much fun.**

* * *

"A Woman," Luke repeated.

"Yes," Holly replied.

"But how…?" Luke began

Ryan scratched her eyebrow with the back of her thumb. "Okay, so the killer used a phallus of some sort then."

"Yes. We didn't immediately clue into it being one because the hardness and flexibility of it fell between the normal ranges of a penis," Holly answered.

"You can determine that?" Luke asked.

"Usually, but not this time. We missed it," Holly said with a defeated look on her face.

"We're going to have to adjust the profile," Brandon stated.

"Does this mean that all the victims were…" Marc began.

"Lesbian or bisexual," Ryan finished and then said, "They were likely lured out by this woman the same way Maggie Davis was. We're going to have to follow-up and check. No assumptions, but it seems likely."

Gail's heart was racing. Not only did they look like her, have the same occupations that she had once performed, but they might be more like her than even she thought. She started breathing rapidly and before she knew it she was starting to hyperventilate. Traci was on her in an instant rubbing her hand over Gail's back in slow circles. "Easy, Gail. Easy. Look at me. Breathe with me," Traci said. Gail obeyed looking Traci in the eyes. Gail missed the look of worry on Holly's face but Ryan didn't. After a moment Gail had calmed down enough to speak.

"I want to talk to Perik," Gail said looking up at Ryan and Luke.

"No," Holly started toward Gail, a pained look on her face.

Gail turned cold eyes to Holly, "I had no say about _you_ talking to him. I don't think you get to weigh in on me talking to him." Holly took a step back like she'd been pushed. In a way she had, such was the force of Gail's stare.

"Gail, I don't think-," Luke began.

"No! No one is talking me out of this. This is what he was talking about. I know it. The killer is murdering women who could be me. I can find out something from him. I did before." She looked at Luke.

"You did," Luke confirmed.

Ryan saw the look on Holly's face and spoke to keep her from speaking, "Gail, let us get some information on the others. Let's make sure you have as much information as you can when you meet with him."

"I want to talk to him tomorrow. So you'd better hurry," Gail spoke staring at Ryan much the same way she had at Holly.

Ryan turned to Brandon and Marc, "You heard Detective Peck. What are you waiting for? Call the San Fran office." Both men jumped up to follow-up on the new leads.

* * *

Hours later, Marc and Brandon had received word from the San Francisco office that they had confirmed all the victims were, in fact, lesbian or bisexual. They had all been closeted to some degree, especially, the police officer and the car saleswoman, but when pressed with the detail that the killer was most likely a woman the people in their lives had been more open. Gail couldn't believe it. How had they missed this for so long? She flung a file on the table in frustration and looked at Ryan. Holly had long since gone back to the lab.

"Don't look at me that way," Ryan ran her hand through her hair, more frustrated than Gail. "We asked these questions, Gail. I swear we already asked them." They had known the prostitutes saw both male and female clients but Barbara Bennett and Julie Hammond had both been closeted. Barbara came from a very conservative, very religious family and had not had a serious girlfriend. Julie had stayed in the closet according to her police partner because she had been dating a woman on the force but they had recently broken up. "I can't believe we missed this. I can't believe _I _missed this."

Gail looked over at Ryan who looked absolutely broken. "Hey, we're all doing the best we can. I think your profile is still pretty accurate except for the sex."

"I went with the stats on it. The stats had it at white male. I know we never recovered semen from the victims, but they'd been washed so thoroughly. I had a niggling feeling. You know at the back of your neck? I knew I was missing something but…dammit!"

"This is hard on everyone. I think…I think we need a break."

"A break?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah. Has Holly taken you to The Black Penny yet?"

"The Black Penny?"

"It's sort of the unofficial bar of 15 Division. We go there to unwind, and you, Special Agent Parker, need to unwind. Invite the twisted twins," Gail gestured to Marc and Brandon, "and I'll make sure the guys from 15 are there."

"And Holly?"

"Of course," Gail made a face. "Can't leave Holly out. She needs a break too."

* * *

It was nine o'clock before Holly and Ryan walked into the Penny. Ryan went to the lab to pick her up. Everyone had worked until Ryan and Gail made them leave at eight. Ryan wanted to be here sooner, but Holly insisted on reviewing a few tests at the lab to see if they had missed anything else. They had ridden over to the bar in complete silence after Ryan had explained where they were going.

Holly walked straight to the bar ignoring the table where most of the folks she and Gail had known from 15 were. "Bourbon and diet, please."

Ryan walked up behind her, "Make it two." The bartender mixed the drinks, served them, and then walked away. Ryan took a breath and then began speaking again, "Did I ever tell you that the first year I had my driver's license I wrecked my daddy's pickup truck?" Holly didn't respond but Ryan continued anyway, "I hit a deer. It started running across the road and froze. I've never felt sorrier for anything in my life. I didn't mean to hit it. I couldn't react fast enough to avoid it. It was awful." Holly looked at her then and tilted her head in question. "There's a reason for that cliché 'deer in headlights' Holls. You had the same look on your face today in that hallway. Tell her," Ryan finished emphatically.

"No."

"Okay. Then I will."

"Ryan Parker, you will do no such thing."

"That's fine for you to say. She doesn't want to rip your head off and shit down your neck."

"You're the crudest person I know, and she does not."

"Look, I get that Peck is all starry-eyed when she looks at you usually, but she's not all that warm and fuzzy and she definitely holds some ill-will towards me. But who can blame her when she thinks we're doing the horizontal mambo."

"Keep your voice down."

"Then _tell her_."

"No."

"Why the fuck not, Holly?" Ryan said a bit loudly.

Holly looked around and whispered hotly, "Because I left her. Okay? I left her and then this psycho happened. I left her and she deserves to be happy. She deserves to be happy. More than anyone I know, she deserves to be happy, and I've rained this shit storm down on her life in spite of my best efforts to protect her from this nightmare."

"You're in love with her, and I'm pretty sure she's still in love with you considering if looks could kill, I'd be lying dead somewhere."

"I can't do this. I'm leaving," Holly said but was interrupted by Chloe approaching the bar.

"Holly!" Chloe squealed and pulled Holly into what Holly thought was an aggressive hug. "I'm so glad you're here! I've missed you! We've all missed you and Gail has been downright mean since you've been gone. I know she's glad you're back. Come on over to the table and see everyone," Chloe finished as she dragged Holly toward the table.

Holly whipped her head around to Ryan who just shook hers in response, "No way. You're going. I'll bring the drinks."

Holly closed her eyes briefly to brace herself, Chloe still had a death grip on her forearm. Holly surveyed the group of tables that had been pulled together. Brandon, Marc, Luke, Traci, Steve, Chris, Dov, an empty seat she assumed to be Chloe's, Nick, a woman she didn't know, Andy, Sam, Celery, Oliver, Gail and two empty chairs. Ryan must have been right behind them because she sat down in the second empty chair leaving the other empty one next to Gail open as Chloe sat next to Dov. Not seeing another option, Holly sat next to Gail.

"Holly, darlin' I think you know all the folks gathered 'round tonight. Except, maybe for the lovely Juliet Ward. She's new to 15 and putting up with Collins there until she comes to her senses. Juliet, this is Dr. Holly Stewart who used to work here in Toronto and is back here on a case. Next to her is Ryan Parker of the FBI," Oliver finished and gestured to Ryan.

"Ma'am," Ryan said and nodded her head.

"Is she for real?" Juliet asked.

"Painfully," Gail answered and all eyes turned to her. "What? Like I'm the only one…whatever. Alright, Parker pay attention just in case you don't already know these losers." Gail pointed and spoke again, "You know your boys, Luke, and Traci Nash. The rest are Steve Peck, the ugly sibling, Chris Diaz, Dov Epstein, Chloe Price, Nick Collins, you've met Juliet, Andy McNally, Sam Swarek, Celery and Oliver Shaw. Nash, Diaz, Epstein, McNally and I graduated from the academy together."

"Anything else I need to know?" Ryan asked.

Holly wasn't sure what motivated her, but her only defense was that she'd felt battered since she arrived in Toronto and the scene in the hallway with Gail and that cute little girl didn't help matters at all. "Well, Gail dated Chris, Nick and me."

"And Dov confessed his love for her when he was high on pain pills once," Chloe added.

"Chloe!" Dov shouted.

"Price! Have you lost your mind?" Gail tried her best to stare a hole through Chloe as Ryan started laughing.

"You never told me you dated Gail," Juliet said to Nick.

"Oh yeah, they were engaged. Nick left Gail at the altar," Chris added helpfully.

"I see," Juliet said and stood up.

"It wasn't like that," Nick started and stood. Then he saw the look on Gail's face. "I mean it's not like that anymore. We're just friends now."

"You two were in the car together the second time we met!" Juliet shouted.

"Nice, Chris. Nice," Gail grit her teeth and stood too. "Juliet, believe me. We're just friends. I cheated on Nick and we broke up and then I dated Holly. There's nothing but friendship between us now. Believe me."

"Yeah, besides when he was with Gail, he was in love with Andy," Chloe supplied.

Nick looked like Chloe had hit him in the head with a pipe. "Chloe! Don't help!"

"Did you and Andy date, Nicholas?" Juliet asked.

"Yes," he replied and hung his head.

"This is like cable TV," Ryan said out of the side of her mouth to Holly who looked a little guilty for having set this series of events in motion.

"And just how did that end?" Juliet asked.

"Uh, uh, Andy and I broke up after Sam was shot," Nick answered.

"I was wrong. This is better than cable," Ryan whispered to Holly. "I wish I had popcorn." Holly hid her grin behind her hand.

"You know what, I'm going home," Juliet stated.

"I'll go with you. We can talk," Nick said and tried to put his hand on the small of her back but withdrew it when she glared at him.

"Thanks, guys," Nick said sarcastically as they left.

They waited until they had cleared the door of the Penny and then the table erupted in giggles all the way around. Oliver was the first to recover, "How did that to happen?"

"No idea," Traci said wiping her eyes.

"Y'all are like Days of Our Lives. That's how," Ryan answered.

"Epstein, you owe us all drinks after that. I want a double," Gail said.

"Me? What did I do?" Dov asked incredulously.

"I'm holding you responsible for Price and Chris, since she's your girlfriend and he's your son." Gail answered.

"Nope. You have just as much responsibility for Chris as I do. Chloe is on her own for this one." Dov crossed his arms over his chest as the said it.

"Fine. Price, go get everyone at the table a refill," Gail ordered.

Chloe looked a little hurt and Holly felt guilty. "I'll help, Chloe. C'mon," Holly said as she stood.

"You know this is why you never have a girlfriend for very long, Chris, your tendency to overshare," Gail said.

"Hey! I just like variety that's all. No one has complained but you, Gail," Chris retorted.

"Then they're idiots."

"I'll have you know, I have a few who want more but I can't be tied down. I need to be free. Just in the last two weeks, I've been out with a nurse, a flight attendant, a cop from 27, and a paralegal."

"You're a regular love machine, Diaz, but I gotta tell ya, being tied down to one good woman…not such a bad thing," Sam grinned.

"Here, here," Oliver held his glass aloft.

After that, there were more than a few rounds and more laughter than Holly could remember. The folks from 15 seemed to be having a competition with Ryan and the FBI boys about the most ridiculous collar. Ryan won because she had actually arrested a woman on Santa's lap. Never mind it was an exotic dancer wanted for credit card fraud and identity theft in four states but she still won.

It was just after midnight and Ryan and Holly had excused themselves to go back to the hotel. They were still standing outside the Penny when Holly spoke, "Thank you. I needed that. I feel lighter than I have in weeks."

"Don't thank me. It was Gail's idea," Ryan shrugged and turned to Holly in time to see a red glow on the side of Holly's head. She didn't think, she just reacted instinctually. She tackled Holly to the ground and heard the first shot hit the glass window behind them. She covered Holly's body with her own as the second shot took out the glass of the parked car they had fallen behind. Safety glass rained down on them. Ryan was determined to protect Holly so she was afraid to move. She hoped no one in the bar had been hurt and she hoped that someone came to help soon.


	10. Chapter 10

Ryan tackled Holly to the ground and heard the first shot hit the glass window behind them. She covered Holly's body with her own as the second shot took out the glass of the parked car they had fallen behind. Safety glass rained down on them as the shots continued. Ryan was determined to protect Holly so she was afraid to move. She hoped no one in the bar had been hurt and she hoped that someone came to help soon.

Ryan didn't have to wait long. She heard Luke calling to her between gunshots from a crouched position near the door of The Penny. "Parker! Are you hit?"

She raised her hands off her head and called back, "Not yet, but whoever it is is pretty damn determined. What are you doing about it?"

"Just sit tight," he ordered.

Ryan found the energy to roll her eyes and said more to herself than Holly, "And just what does he expect us to do?"

Holly answered anyway, "No idea."

"Holls, just…just sit…Jesus…just don't move. They're gonna get us out of this," Ryan said.

"You were going to say 'sit tight' weren't you?" Holly asked from her supine position under Ryan.

"Shut up, Stewart. I know it doesn't make sense. Evidently, it's what we say."

She heard sirens close by and the gunshots stopped abruptly. Ryan heard activity around their position and Oliver Shaw calling out orders, "Shots came from the southwest side of The Penny. Most likely from an upper floor of a building on State Street. I want teams of two on each of the doors and I want the block sealed."

"Oliver, have we had the all clear?" Ryan shouted to him.

"Not yet, Darlin' but soon I think. Sit tight!" he yelled back. Holly giggled.

"Holls, it's not funny," Ryan said but snickered. Soon they dissolved into uncontrollable laughter.

"I know…this is…a stress response…but I can't help it," Holly got out between laughs.

They were still laughing when the all clear came. Ryan raised up on her knees which were straddling Holly's thighs. She was still propped up on her hands when Gail came barreling out of the pub. If Ryan had any doubts about how Gail felt about Holly, they were swept away when she saw her pale face blanch further. There was nothing to be done about it. It wasn't like she could suddenly jump up and make their bodies' positions any less awkward for Gail. She slowly stood and extended her hand to Holly.

Holly extended her hand back as she sat up and winced, "Shit! I think my wrist is broken" she hissed.

"Shit. I'm sorry, Holls," Ryan said contritely.

Holly extended her other hand and Ryan helped her up off the ground. "You saved my life, Ryan. You don't have to be sorry about anything," Holly said, hugged her with her good arm, and kissed her on the cheek.

"Holls, Gail is in the doorway." Ryan gestured with her eyes.

Holly looked over and saw Gail. "Ah, well," she sighed as Gail looked away.

"C'mon. Let's get your wrist checked out. I'm sure they'll let you give your statement at the hospital," Ryan said.

"What about you?"

"You know the deal, Holls, where you go, I go. I'm your shadow. I'm sure they'll let me give my statement there too. I'll go arrange it with Oliver. Don't wander off," Ryan said as she walked toward Oliver.

"Funny, Parker," Holly said as she hugged herself. The pain in her wrist increasing and the adrenaline leaving her body rapidly.

* * *

Gail had wrestled with herself for hours. She had seen Holly and Ryan outside the Penny but she had also seen that Holly was injured. She had to find out if she was okay. It was a compulsion. So here she was at their hotel room in the early morning hours. She knew no good would come of this, but she had to do it. Maybe it was masochism. Maybe she was just, as Holly had said before, insane. She knocked on the door. She waited a bit trying to bite off her impatience. She knocked again. _Please, God, don't let them be naked._

Ryan opened the door in navy cotton pajama pants and a white skin tight spaghetti strap tank top that left little to the imagination, "Peck, what are you…" she was cut off by Holly coming around the corner in a too large fuzzy hotel robe.

"Gail! Gail! I'm so glad to see you! I'm so happy! Ryan and I were just going to take a spin in the Jacuzzi. Do you want to get in the Jacuzzi, Gail? I'll go see if we have a suit," and with that she walked out of Gail's sight.

Gail took a deep breath to try and dislodge the anvil on her chest, "I just had to come and check to see if she was okay…I shouldn't have come. I'll go." Gail turned on unsteady legs.

Ryan reached out and held her in place by grasping her forearm. "Steady there, Peck. She's high as a kite, Gail. She has no idea what this looks like. There is nothing between us. I promise you. Come in. Help me look after her. They gave her pain meds for her wrist. It's fractured. She used it to break our fall when I tackled her."

Gail couldn't process it. Ryan and Holly were not together but Holly had not told her, Ryan had. She asked the question she came to ask, "Is she okay? Is she going to be okay?"

"Yeah, come in. See for yourself."

"Nah. I need to get ready for today anyway."

"You don't still want to talk to Perik do you?"

"Duh."

"Gail, wait a day. Let this settle."

"I gotta go, Parker…You might want to make her some chamomile tea. It settles her like a tranquilizer."

"Good to know."

"And, Parker?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for saving her." Gail made her escape and the beginnings of a plan started in her head. She would do whatever it took to keep Holly safe. She may lose her chance to be with Holly ever again but she'd be safe. It would be enough. It would have to be enough.

* * *

By late morning, Holly had recovered from her drug-induced haze enough to accompany Ryan to the East Detention Centre. They were standing in the same observation room that Ryan had previously occupied with Gail when Holly talked to Perik. Gail was already in the interrogation room waiting on Perik. Ryan thought it best to bring Holly in after Gail was settled. Luke agreed. Holly was running her hands through her hair nervously. The Velcro of the black brace on her arm snagging a tendril or two. "Oh, my, God. I'm so nervous," Holly said as she put the thumb of her uninjured hand to her mouth and began chewing the nail.

"Didn't you expound to me just last week about how that was unsanitary?"

"What?" Holly looked down absently. "Oh. Shut up."

"Holly, she's going to be fine. She's done this before. She's his Achilles heel," Luke said as he squeezed Holly's shoulders from behind and stepped to her left.

Gail sat at the table perfectly still. She felt a calm come over her. She took a deep cleansing breath using her Yoga skills. The guards brought Perik in and shackled him to the table. His eyes lit up when he looked at her. He sighed, "Gail."

"Hello, Ross. You look the same as the last time I saw you." She tilted her head.

He turned his head and squinted his eyes. "Are you fishing for a compliment, Gail? You certainly look different than the last time I saw you. The dark hair brings out your eyes. So striking. You might make me change my mind about blondes." He spread his hands wide on the table.

"Yes, Ross, I live my life in anticipation of compliments from you," she deadpanned.

"Where is the lovely Dr. Stewart? I would have thought the two of you would be here together."

"I don't know."

"Aren't you happy she's back in Toronto, Gail? I heard you were heartbroken over her leaving."

"Not really. It's a bit complicated now. Have you ever thought you wanted something and then when you lost it, it wasn't that big a deal? It's like that."

Inside the observation room Holly sucked in a ragged breath. Ryan rubbed her hand across Holly's back trying to soothe her as they looked through the one-way mirror. "She doesn't mean it, Holly." Holly's only response was another shaky breath.

Inside interrogation Perik smirked, "That's not what I heard, Gail. I heard that you were so upset you didn't go out for weeks."

"And just who is this source, Ross? I didn't go out for weeks with my buddies from 15 because I was fucking my way down Church Street. Okay? It's true what they say, 'the best way to get over one person is to get under another one.'" She smiled a cruel smile. "I found out that Holly wasn't all that special. I just liked women in general. Speaking of which, do you want to tell me about these women?" She took the pictures out of the folders. They were driver's license photos. No cheap thrills for Perik.

Inside observation, Holly shrank back and whispered, "Oh, God."

Ryan continued to rub Holly's back. She had an idea of what Gail was doing and she was doing a damn fine job of it, but to Ryan's mind it was like Gail was performing surgery on Holly without anesthesia. "She's a good interrogator, Holls. Just don't listen to anything she says about you," Ryan said and Holly glanced at her doubtfully.

"What about them?" Perik asked Gail.

"Don't get cute on me, Ross. It's not attractive. You know they're me. You know they are all me. Did you have one of your little sick, twisted minions do this? To what? Get my attention?" She scoffed.

"Well, you're here. Let's just call this a fortuitous circumstance."

"You can't keep killing women for attention."

"Gail, as you had your friend Ryan point out to me last time, 'I'm just a guy shackled to a table.' I didn't kill anyone. As much as I would have enjoyed it."

"Tell her to stop," Gail said, and enjoyed the shock that passed over his face before he could hide it. "Didn't think we'd clue into that did you?"

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath in through his nose trying to calm himself. "I see Dr. Stewart is a formidable adversary."

"Actually, she didn't have dick to do with this. This was a beautiful, 'fortuitous circumstance.' We've got your girl on surveillance. It's just a matter of time before we get an ID. Why not make it easy and give her up?"

"And lose these stimulating chats?" he mocked.

"Ross, you give her up, I mean really give her up and we arrest her? I'll come down here and do a striptease for you once a year. You're not going to get a better offer than that."

He laughed a high-pitched laugh. It made him sound unhinged. "You're not afraid of me anymore. Are you, Gail?"

"No," she said and looked him right in the eyes.

He lunged for her then, straining against the shackles. The guards rushed in to subdue him and began the process of dragging him from the room. Gail kept the fear off her face, out of her eyes, and just gave him a hard stare as he started screaming, "That's your first mistake, Gail! You should always be afraid of me! You belong to me, Gail! You're mine! I don't care how long it takes! I'll finish what I started!"

Gail waited until they had dragged Perik completely out of the room to exhale. She rubbed her hands across her face and sat with her elbows on the table for a moment. Finally, she stood up and walked into observation. The first thing she noticed was that Holly was there. _Fuck! Fuckety! Fuck! Fuck! Rip off the bandage, Gail. Be Peck Strong._ The second thing she noticed was Holly advancing on her rapidly.

"You idiot! Why would you provoke him?!" Holly hit her on the shoulders with her open palms shoving her backwards, not caring about her injured wrist.

"Hello, to you too, Lunchbox," Gail said without emotion.

"Gail, why would you do that? Why would you make yourself more of a target?" Holly wanted to shake her.

"Because if he's focused on me, he'll get sloppy. They'll get sloppy. If he's focused on me, maybe no one else dies," Gail said like it was the most logical thing on earth.

Holly had a flashback to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. "Do not give me the 'good of the many' speech, Gail. You're too important…"

"I'm not more important than any of them."

"You're too important to me! You're too important to _me_!" Holly slapped her uninjured hand across her mouth, shocked at her admission.

"Oh, yeah, I'm so important to you that you left me! You moved over 4,000km away and never looked back!"

"That not true, Gail. That's not true." Holly shook her head, pleading for Gail to understand.

"Look, I get it," Gail reasoned more calmly now. "It wasn't enough for you. I think I just kinda got swept up in the whole 'woman' thing ya know? Looking back on it, I realized it wasn't enough for you to stay. But all in all, it was a good thing. I've got more time to focus on my work, and as my mother constantly tells me, I was 'born to do this.' I'm really, really good at what I do, Holly. I'm happy, or I was happy, until I found out about Perik and his apprentice.

"I'm sorry if you heard any of that stuff in there. That's not the way I would have told you. I'd have told you with more tact, believe it or not. I don't want to hurt you. I'm sorry that because of me, you've been dragged into this. I want you to be happy. I just know it can't be with me. We didn't work out and I'm okay with that," Gail finished.

Ryan looked at Holly and the tears in her eyes. She was torn between interrupting and letting them have their moment. Holly continued to stare at Gail. She made her decision, "C'mon, Holls. Let's go." Ryan turned to Luke, "I assume you'll debrief Gail?"

"Yeah," he responded.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: I think, based on the reviews, there's a lot more leeway for Gail's behavior than Holly's, which I find odd, but I still like hearing what you all think. For the guest reviewers, I'd love to respond to you and be able to ask you to clarify some of your comments but am unable to do so. However, I'm grateful for them just the same.**

**Thanks to Bailey for making this story better than it was. This work of fiction and all original characters are mine. Obviously, Rookie Blue characters belong to Rookie Blue. **

* * *

After Ryan and Holly left, Luke turned back to Gail. "I hope you know what the hell you're doing."

"Yeah, me too," Gail responded without looking up at him.

"You really think painting a target on your back is the way to go?"

She squinted her eyes at him then, and said, "You think there's not one there already? Do you think I can do anything to be more of a target than I already am? I'm his endgame. I know that. I accept that. All of this…all of it, is about me. Hopefully, this makes them sloppy. Hopefully, this takes Holly off the board and makes them focus on me."

He took a slow breath and chose his next words carefully. "I assume the conversation in there with Perik and then in here with Holly was to push her as far away from you as she could get, both in his mind and hers." Gail didn't respond verbally she just continued to look at him. "You can be honest with her, Gail. She deserves that."

"She deserves not to be a part of this at all! She deserves to be safe, and happy, and far away from here!"

"Gail…"

"No! You know she's a target, Luke! I don't know if she was lucky outside the Penny or if it was a warning but you know they'll use her just to hurt me. You know it."

"So diminishing her importance to you, to the investigation in there, you think that gives her a better shot of being safe. I get it. What I don't get, is your little song and dance with her in here. Just in front of me and Ryan. You didn't have to do that to her. It was almost…cruel."

"I'm the ice queen. Haven't you heard?"

"Don't be that way with me. I know you better than that. I know how much you care. I, more than almost anybody, know how far you'll go to protect someone. I watched you with Perik last time. I know what you're willing to sacrifice to save someone. What I'm telling you is that it's unnecessary this time; you didn't have to hurt her like that." He began to reach out toward her but she jerked away.

"Ice queen," she pointed her thumbs back at herself. "Chris told me once_ I_ was 'cold'. He broke up with me because…you know what? It doesn't matter why. I don't give a fuck about what people think about me and what I do and how I do it. You don't get to judge me," she spat.

Luke was not convinced. Her eyes were darting around the room. He had the feeling she was about to shatter at any moment. It was so unlike Gail that he wrapped her up in a fierce hug. He spoke into her temple, "Gail, we'll play it however you want to play it. You want to keep her in the dark? You think it keeps her safer? That's the way we'll play it. I'll follow your lead." Gail couldn't respond. She just started sobbing into his shoulder as her knees buckled and he held her up.

* * *

Ryan sighed as she sat on the couch in the suite she shared with Holly. The drive home had been silent. Holly had spent the ride staring out the window. Ryan was pretty sure Holly had actually shed tears but she hadn't spoken to her since they left the observation room at the prison. As soon as they'd gotten into the suite, Holly had gone into her bedroom and shut the door. It had been over an hour and Ryan didn't want to intrude but she had to do something. She called down to room service and after they finally delivered, she knocked on the bedroom door. "Holls?" She waited a beat, "Holls, I had them deliver some room service. Can I come in?" No answer. "Holls, I'm going to come in if you don't answer me."

"I…I just want to be alone right now."

"I know you do, darlin' but it's actually the worst thing for you right now. Besides, I got you somethin'. Can I at least come in?"

"Fine."

Ryan opened the door. "You know I make it a policy to never actually believe a woman is 'fine' when she answers with 'fine.'" Ryan stepped in carrying a room service tray. Holly was laying on the bed propped up against the headboard with an assortment of pillows. She had kicked off her shoes but had left her blazer on. "Are you cold?" Ryan asked.

"What?" Holly looked down at her blazer. "No. I just never took it off…I've been…preoccupied."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

"Okay. I have ice cream," Ryan smiled. "Best cure for a broken heart. They didn't have a great selection so I got chocolate."

Holly closed her eyes and smiled sadly. "Thanks, Ry."

"And…I understand that the hotel's on demand system includes classic movies. We can watch Casablanca or The Thin Man or, God help me, Camille. I'll even watch Camille if you want to."

"What about Stella Dallas or Madame X?"

"I don't feel that sorry for you."

"Imitation of Life?"

"Hell no."

"Aww. C'mon. Is it because you're an ugly crier?"

"Shut up. I got you ice cream," Ryan said as she put the tray down on the bed.

"Gimme," Holly said as she held out her hands.

"You wanna watch a movie?"

"Casablanca is good. I can watch that," Holly said as she took the ice cream container and a spoon from Ryan. "C'mon. Sit over here," Holly patted the unoccupied side of the bed.

They shared most of the container of ice cream while Rick and Ilsa navigated through a war torn love affair. As Bogie and Claude Rains walked through the fog, Ryan finally spoke, "You know she put you on the plane."

"What?" Holly turned to Ryan.

"I realize Perik isn't quite the Nazis, but he is evil. She's trying to protect you."

"I don't like feeling stupid. What are you talking about?"

"I'm sayin' you're two peas in a pod. She's trying with her words to do what you tried to do with your silence. All those things she said in that room and then to you. That was Rick's speech to Ilsa to get her on the plane. To keep her safe. Gail said all those things to remove you from play, to keep you off his radar."

"Why did she say all of them again to me in the observation room then? It was just the four of us there. I've seen her lash out in anger and put up walls before. It wasn't that. She seemed…sincere," Holly finished.

"I don't know. What I do know, is that she did everything she could to put the focus solely on her in that interrogation room. Anytime he mentioned you, her relationship to you, your work, she dismissed it. Then she taunted him and got him to break. She's a remarkable interrogator.

"Holls, you were in the room with him. You know what it's like. Picture being in there if your worst memory is him holding you hostage, that he's held that kind of power over you. If she can do that with him, I can't imagine how good she'd be in a neutral interrogation room. Goddamn incredible. But I bet it's a bitch to be in a relationship with her."

"What makes you say that?"

"I'd think that if Gail didn't want you to know something, you wouldn't know it. She'd have to actively pull down her own walls."

"It was easy with her until it wasn't."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, the Gail I knew and the way her friends talked about her were two different people to me. I never saw what they saw. She was snarky and quirky funny. It was the most organic relationship I'd ever had. The easiest. Well, except for the cliché of falling for your straight friend but we navigated through that. Once she decided she wanted to be with me, she had one night of 'gay panic,'" Holly laughed without humor and then more sincerely, "That was a bad joke. It was the stress of having a homicidal maniac shoot up the precinct and two of her friends, but then it was over. She trusted me enough to let me see her when she was at her worst. That was huge for Gail. She accepted our relationship and was out almost from the beginning. We were together and everyone knew. I thought everything was almost perfect."

"What happened?"

"I was so happy, so _proud_ of her, I wanted to show her off. My best friends demanded to meet the woman that had me wrapped around her finger. It was a disaster. My friend Lisa, who's judgmental on a good day, made a comment about Gail, and Gail overheard. Worse than that, she didn't hear me defend her or try to defend her. Lisa had been on me all night. On me about 'poking at dead people' especially because I graduated first in my class. She only saw Gail as a pretty face and looked down on her because she was a 'beat cop.' I blew her off because I didn't care what she thought. We'd been drinking. She didn't know Gail. I believed she'd come around. I didn't count on Gail overhearing us and thinking that I was saying that our relationship wasn't serious."

"Somehow, from what I know about Gail, I don't envision that ending well."

"She left me standing in the middle of the Penny after she said she'd rather 'tase herself in the eye' than spend another minute with me."

Ryan couldn't help it, she laughed. "She's about as subtle as a lead pipe that one."

"Yeah," Holly sighed.

"And then?"

"Well, a few weeks later, she comes back into the lab, tries to coerce Rodney- you met him last week- into doing a job that he wasn't qualified to do so she wouldn't have to see me, then acts like I'm her favorite sight when she finally does. She asked me out to 'apologize' and I told her I was seeing someone. Lisa talked me into it after Rachel talked me into speaking to Lisa again. It was only two dates but it was better than sitting at home crying every night."

"What was Gail's reaction?"

"It hurt her. I could tell. Then it was gone. Then later that day, she surprised me. Gave herself a very critical self-assessment said she was 'self-destructive' and some other less flattering things and told me that she didn't want to turn into 'a sad, sorry woman who threw away the most wonderful person she ever met.'"

"See? Not subtle. What did you say to that?"

"I told her goodnight and walked out of the precinct."

"You left after _that_?"

"Just that night. Not Toronto."

"And?"

"And I got the job in California. I had applied before I met Gail. The interview process was lengthy. That's what started the conversation that night at the Penny. Lisa was telling me 'get out before she gets hurt' talking about Gail. She thought that would convince me to break up with Gail. Lisa knew I was up for the job. I honestly didn't think I'd get it, but Lisa always has more faith in me than I do in myself. One of the many reasons I continue to keep her around. Even if she can be a heinous bitch from time to time."

"So obviously you took the job. Did you just leave things with Gail like they were?"

"Oh no. When I decide on something, I go all out and I had decided that I wanted Gail back. I came up with this lame excuse to get her into an interrogation room. I thought if I could just get her alone, I could talk to her."

"So you talked then?"

Holly laughed. "No. I attacked her."

"Attacked her?"

"With my lips."

Ryan threw her head back and laughed. "You saucy minx, you!"

"She just looked too adorable. I couldn't resist."

"Peck is not adorable."

"So she says. You two have a lot in common. But I suppose the gesture was very dramatic. I rambled on about Barolo. Gail made excuses. Then, the next night I told Gail that I took a job and was moving in two weeks. I told her I wanted her to come with me. She told me she wanted to adopt a little girl. We talked. I cried. She tried to joke to keep me from crying. We spend most of the next two weeks as together as possible. It was like when we were friends before. It was easy. It was hard. It was wonderful. It was awful."

"I swear to God, if you go all Tale of Two Cities on me…"

Holly pushed Ryan's shoulder with her good hand. "Fine. Then I moved and we tried to keep in touch but it was hard. I missed her so much but she wanted Sophie and I wanted her to be happy."

"Sophie?"

"The little girl. She didn't get her."

"I can't imagine Gail being a mother."

"Oh I could. I have. She's amazing with children. You should see her with Traci's son Leo. She's amazing."

"I think you've gotten to see more of Gail Peck than she'd ever willingly show someone else."

"I have," Holly nodded. "What am I going to do, Ry?"

"It's going to be okay."

"She's…she's the love of my life." Holly started to cry.

"I know, darlin'. I know." Ryan wrapped her up in a hug.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Thank you all for all the faves, follows and reviews. Thanks to Bailey for being the best beta. **

**I publish all your reviews but please let me ask that you keep them civil. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I love that we get to express them in this forum. Please be respectful of one another, and I'll ask, of the show and its writers too. They're why you fell in love with these two beautiful idiots in the first place.**

* * *

Ryan sat behind the desk in Holly's old lab and sipped her coffee slowly. She and Holly had finally fallen asleep after watching The Thin Man. Technically, Holly had fallen asleep before the movie was over but not before she could deliver an informative monologue on Myrna Loy, one of her favorite actresses. It had taken Ryan a lot longer to fall asleep. She leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes.

Holly glanced over from her microscope, "You look like shit, Ry. I'm the one that had the breakdown last night. I should be the one that looks hungover."

"Who said you don't?" Ryan didn't open her eyes.

"Harsh," Holly smirked. "But, really, thanks. I…"

"Stewart."

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

At that moment, a crime tech swung open the door, which banged into the wall, and ran into the lab. "Dr Stewart! Dr. Stewart! We…"

Ryan jumped up, dropped her coffee, drew her weapon, and only barely managed not to shoot him. He fainted and fell to the floor with what Ryan would have characterized as a satisfying thud. "Goddammit! I wanted to yell at him," Ryan said as she holstered her weapon.

"If you yell at him, he's going to piss himself," Holly replied calmly.

"You think?" Ryan smiled widely.

"Really?" Holly shook her head. "Help me get him comfortable. I have some ammonia salts in the first aid kit unless they've changed it. I kept it in there for the rookies watching their first autopsy."

"Fine, but I'm shooting the next one," Ryan said as she knelt down next to him.

"Just watch him while I go get them." A minute later Holly returned and waved the activated salts under the tech's nose.

He came to like an unpaused movie. "Dr. Stewart! Dr. Stewart! We were able to get a clear pic of the suspect. We were able to clear up the distortion and re-pixelate the image. I think we have a good image from the camera over the bar," he said as he tried to sit up.

Ryan held him in place and stared at him with steely blue eyes. "How nice. What's your name?"

"Jeff…Jeffrey," he stammered.

"Alright, Jeffrey. You know that Dr. Stewart is in protective custody. Correct?"

"Yes."

"So, now do you think barging into a room unannounced with an armed federal agent on the other side of the door is a good idea?"

"N…no?" Jeffrey replied as Ryan helped him sit up.

"No. It is not," Ryan spoke from between clenched teeth.

"Agent Parker, perhaps we can forgive Jeffrey just this one time?" Holly threw herself into the fray. Ryan shot her a look that said quite clearly – _No_. "Okay, Jeffrey, where is this image?"

"Oh," he looked around. "I must have dropped it." The next few moments were spent with Jeffrey on his hands and knees looking under some of the cabinets and tables. "Got it!" He stood up and handed it to Holly.

"This is as good as you were able to get it?" she asked.

"Yeah, but we think it'll be okay. We're running it against facial recognition software now. Starting with criminal databases."

"Holly, how long will that take?" Ryan asked.

"Too long. We need a place to start. Unless she has a record in Canada, we need to be able to narrow it down," Holly replied.

"Okay. I'll call someone in for duty here. I'm going to see if Nash wants to go with me to talk to the victim's roommate. Show her this see if she's seen her." Ryan pulled out her cell phone and called Luke first to update him.

* * *

As they drove to the victim's apartment Traci turned to Ryan, "Who's going to show the photo to the bar staff?"

"Not sure. I think Luke and maybe Gail," Ryan responded and Traci sighed. "Look, if you think you'll have any more success keeping Gail out of this than you did before be my guest."

"I never agreed with Holly to not tell her. I know why she did it. She was trying to keep Gail as far away from it as possible, trying to protect her. I knew it was irrational and would piss Gail off but that doesn't mean though that I'm all for Gail exposing herself up to another possible sniper attack. You know if they went after Holly, Gail is certainly a target too."

"I think the killer wouldn't let Gail off that easy. The killer has been building this up for months. Torturing Holly. With every body we found, Holly folded into herself a little bit more. We contacted Toronto PD for the records with the first body. Superintendent Peck contacted us almost immediately and brokered a deal that would keep Gail in the dark."

"And ordered Oliver not to tell her before he sent her away undercover," Tracy added.

"Wow."

"It didn't surprise me. You know when Perik asked to speak to her the last time one of his apprentices abducted a girl, Steve basically sat on me for the day in Guns and Gangs and Frank tried his best to keep Gail from it. She had to beg to do it. She got what she needed from him though."

"I gotta tell you I was impressed as hell with her interrogation skills. You teach her that?" Ryan asked.

"Nah. Gail came that way. Mama Peck may be a piece of work but she taught Gail how to be a great cop. Think of the Peck household as ancient Sparta."

"Hmmm. Raise yourself? Scrounging for food? Being a good soldier? Is that right? Western Civ was a long time ago."

"Yeah. Gail has a set of survival skills that a Special Forces soldier would be proud of. She hates camping though. I think her parents ruined it for her," Traci said as she looked out the window.

Ryan laughed. "I can't imagine Peck camping."

"Well, neither can she," Traci laughed lightly as they pulled up in front of the apartment building. It was a factory built in the 1920s, had just been renovated and was quite the coveted address for the up and coming artist crowd with the spacious loft apartments. "Which one is it?" Traci asked.

"330. Nice view. I'm not sure how they afforded it even together."

"Victim didn't make that much as a waitress. Well, not that she reported anyway. I ran the roomie. Her parents are wealthy also. Maybe they didn't cut her off."

"Maybe. We should ask and by 'we' I mean you. Good cop it," Ryan said.

"Alright, but if we're doing that we should go and get McNally. McNally is the best 'good cop' I've ever seen."

"I get that. She kinda looks like a puppy. But you're going to have to manage on your own."

"I can do that."

* * *

Vanessa West was an attractive brunette with green eyes. She opened the door to them still in her pajamas. Her eyes were puffy and Ryan couldn't tell if it was because they woke her up or because she'd been crying. She suspected both. "Ms. West, we have some more questions. May we come in?"

"Yeah. Yeah, of course," Vanessa said as she gestured with her arm for them to walk into the apartment.

Traci took in the apartment. It was one open level with a wall of new windows that were made to look like they were much older than they were. The dark hardwood floors were polished and gleamed in the midday sunlight. There were large prints on the walls that added color to the obviously original brick. The furniture looked expensive. "Nice place," Traci stated casually.

"Yeah. I'm not sure if I'm going to stay here though. I mean I can afford it but I keep expecting to see Maggie come out of her bedroom. It's…hard."

"Is there someone that could come stay with you?" Traci asked sincerely.

"My boyfriend is here most every night. I wouldn't feel safe now otherwise. I know it didn't happen here but…still…"

"I understand," Traci said. And she did.

"So, you had some questions?"

"Yes," Ryan began, "is this a good time?"

"It's fine. I'm sleeping for shit anyway. Rob left at eight this morning and I've been tossing and turning ever since. My shift starts at four. What can I do for you?"

"We have a picture of who we believe might have been with Maggie at the Blue Parrot on Thursday. Did you know that Maggie…dated women?" Ryan asked.

Vanessa made a face. "Of course I did. We were best friends. It wasn't something she told a lot of people but I knew."

"Did you know where she was going on Thursday?" Traci asked.

"No, but I knew she was going to meet a new girl. I'm not sure that they had decided what they were doing yet. I was on a double at the restaurant and a few of us went out for drinks afterward. I didn't get home until almost two a.m. and went straight to bed. I didn't realize she hadn't come home until the next day, and didn't start worrying about her until she didn't show up for her shift at work Friday night."

"Was this a first date?" Ryan asked.

"No. They had been out for coffee. They met running one morning. The girl fell and twisted her ankle and fell in a puddle. Maggie helped her to her car and gave her a towel to put down in her car for the ride home."

"When was this?" Ryan asked.

"Like…two weeks ago? They had been texting I remember Maggie saying that she'd been texting pics of the towel's adventures and had asked her out on a coffee date for 'ransom' for the towel's safe return. They'd been out like maybe twice before this. She really liked her. I could tell."

"Do you have a name?" Traci asked.

"Nope. She just called her 'runner chick' to me. It was something we did until they got serious."

"Here's the photo of the woman that was with Maggie when she was at the Blue Parrot. Do you recognize her? We think the hair is a wig," Ryan finished.

Vanessa took the photo and looked at it for a long while. "No. Nothing."

"Vanessa, is there anything at all that you can tell us about this woman? It might seem insignificant now but anything at all will help us." Traci put her hand on Vanessa's knee.

"She mentioned once that she had to cancel a date on short notice. Said she got called into work for an emergency. She was a flight attendant and I said something stupid like, 'I didn't realize pretzel distribution was an emergency' and we both laughed."

"That's good. That's really good. Do you know what airline?" Traci asked.

"No. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. That's good that's really good." Traci repeated. "I think that's all the questions we have but if you think of anything else, please don't hesitate to contact us." Traci handed her a card. "I know it's hard to stay in the place where you lived when you lost someone but one day it'll get easier."

"Thank you."

"Besides, you already have it decorated the way you want it," Traci smiled.

"Yeah. Maggie did that. She had this massive crush on a girl she went to university with who was a graphic designer. That's why none of the other girls were serious. She had this massive crush on Brandy but never did anything about it except buy her art."

As they left the apartment, Traci asked, "Are you going to tell Brandy?"

"No. I can't think of any purpose it would serve," Ryan sighed.

"Do you think the killer told her the truth about what she did for a living?"

"You ever worked undercover, Nash?"

"No."

"Well, it's easier the less lies you have to tell. If you can come up with something close to the truth, it's easier to remember. Lies are surprisingly hard to keep straight. She's gotten away with five murders so far. I'm sure she thought we'd continue to look for male suspects. I think there's a good chance that she did tell her the truth. It might not be the truth, but we have to work it like it is. What do we need to do to get a warrant for those text messages?"

"Let me take care of it," Traci said as she took out her cell phone.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Folks, good news and bad news. I got a new job. Yay! But that means that the updates here will slow down somewhat. I promise I'm going to finish this but the updates will not, cannot, be as frequent. I still owe Bailey for being her fabulous self. **

**I didn't mean to frighten you all about the reviews. I love to hear what you think about the story good or bad. I'd really love to hear what you think about this chapter. I don't own Rookie Blue or it's characters.**

* * *

The Blue Parrot bore no resemblance to Sidney Greenstreet's bar in Casablanca, one of Holly's favorite movies. Gail thought Holly would get a kick out of it though. The bar had opened after Holly left Toronto. When Gail had heard about it, she had initially thought that when Holly came back they would go. She'd take her out and they'd have a great time playing the "what are they talking about?" game they usually did on dates. They'd take turns making up conversation for random couples. Luke broke into her thoughts.

"Peck, I said, 'are you listening?'"

"Duh."

"Okay. What did I say?"

"You said, 'that since this is my area of expertise, I should take the lead.'"

"I did not say that."

"Alright. What did you say then?"

"Never mind."

"If you were just going to say that, why give me a hard time then?"

"Just take the lead."

"Fine."

They walked up to the bar and waited. They could hear activity in the back room. Luke was about to call out when a beautiful tall woman with skin the color of café au lait rounded the corner wearing a t-shirt tied into a knot between her large, round breasts. Not that Gail noticed. Gail also was not noticing her abdomen and the definition there. Furthermore, she did not notice her toned legs that were mostly exposed by the soccer shorts she wore. Gail was busy not noticing a lot of things.

"Please tell me the two of you have come to arrest me, and you," the woman gestured at Gail, "have brought your handcuffs."

Luke laughed lightly. "Sorry, Sam. We're just here to ask some more questions. Is Gwen around?"

"Yep. I'll go get her," she said as she walked into the back room returning a few moments later with Gwen in tow.

Gwen Eriksson looked like a Viking princess. She was at least six feet tall with long blonde hair and vibrant green eyes. She smiled when she saw Gail. "You must be Detective Peck."

"I am," Gail responded, now occupied not noticing a lot of things about Gwen Eriksson. A year and a half was a long, long time.

"So, how can I help?

Gail pulled the picture out of the folder she carried. "This is as clear as the techs could make it. Is this an accurate representation of the woman that was with Maggie Davis on the night she was in here?"

Gwen took the photo and examined it for a moment. Then held it out, "Sam, what do you think?"

"Yeah, that's her," Sam said.

"Did both of you wait on them?" Gail asked.

"Yeah, we told all that to Luke and the other detective, Traci, the other day," Gwen said.

"It'd be helpful to me if you went over it with me again please," Gail smiled.

"Sure thing. Sam, Brandy and I were working the bar. It was fairly busy that night. There was a women's soccer game on TV and I remember thinking that we should start having drink specials for the local leagues to try and get more traffic in here. Anyway, Brandy came over, almost hyperventilating and asked me to wait on the two customers on the far corner of the high side of the bar."

"High side?"

"Yeah, just something we call it. High side. Low side. The high side is closer to the dance floor. The low side has less real estate behind it. Means fewer customers."

"Okay. Go on."

"So, I went over and waited on them. The girl, Maggie, she had just gotten there and I poured her first drink of the night, a Screaming Orgasm."

"I'm sorry; a what?" Gail asked with a horrified look on her face.

Gwen smirked and answered, "Vodka, Bailey's and Kahlua. Girls like to order it because they get to say, 'I'll have a screaming orgasm'. It's a great first date drink. Sorta breaks the ice."

"Yeah, I'll bet," Gail responded looking away. "Then what?"

"Waited on them all night. Nothing unusual. She, Maggie, switched to Cosmos at some point."

"What was the blue-haired girl drinking?" Gail asked.

"Kamikazes," Sam answered.

"Is that a common drink?"

"Nope. I had to look it up. I get someone asking for one every now and then but like once in a blue moon," Sam said.

"Did either of you hear any of their conversation?" Gail asked.

"You know…I've thought about it since you," Gwen nodded at Luke, "came in last time. It's stupid but they were laughing about blue-hair being a 'pretzel distributor'. It was so odd it came back to me. I don't know what that means, but that's what I heard."

"Weird," Gail said. "We'll follow-up on it. What about you?" she turned to Sam.

"I had a brief conversation with the blue-haired girl before Brandy's crush got here. We talked about the Kamikaze and why she drank it. She said she wanted a drink that fit her mood. It was kinda creepy but then she laughed and said she was just kidding and I didn't think anything else about it," Sam said.

"Anything thing else?" Gail asked.

"No," they answered in unison.

"Alright. Thank you ladies for your help," Gail said as she handed her card to each of them. "If you think of anything else, please don't hesitate to call."

"You know detective, I'd love to call you without thinking of anything but we're going to leave you alone and give Brandy first dibs. She did see you first," Sam winked.

"You need to give her a call, detective," Gwen grinned. "She's a great girl."

"Yeah, I'm kinda busy with these murders, but I'll take it under advisement. Thank you both," and with that Gail turned and walked out of the bar. When Luke caught up with her she said, "Shut up. I don't want to hear it."

"God, you're like a Hemsworth brother but for lesbians," Luke laughed and punched her in the arm.

"Shut. Up."

* * *

As Gail and Luke walked into the conference room that was dedicated to the case, they heard Ryan talking to Traci, "Nash, I could kiss you on the lips right now!"

"Trace, I'm hurt. I thought if you'd ever turn for anyone it'd be for me," Gail arched her eyebrow.

"Don't get carried away, Gail. Ryan is just excited that I got us a warrant."

"For what?"

"Vanessa West remembered that Maggie mentioned that the girlfriend was a flight attendant," Traci said.

"A pretzel distributor," Gail smirked.

"What did you say, Peck?" Ryan asked.

"The bartender at the Blue Parrot said they were laughing about blue-hair being a 'pretzel distributor'. Said she only remembered it later."

"The roommate and Maggie made up that joke. Vanessa called the flight attendant a 'pretzel distributor,'" Ryan said.

"So what does the warrant get us?" Gail asked.

"Text message records from the victim's phone and we got access to Transport Canada's database for airline employee information, try to find a flight attendant that matches our mystery woman. Two warrants. I'm just that good. Hence the offer of a kiss," Traci answered laughing.

"That's a lot of potentials. How long is that going to take?" Luke asked.

"This is where my wonder twins shine. You didn't think I brought them all this way because they're so good-lookin' didja?" Ryan said.

Brandon and Marc looked up from their respective computers. "We're going to cross-match employee records with flight information. We can eliminate any airlines that don't fly to California," Brandon said.

"We'll also try and check dates with crews that were in the San Fran and Toronto areas during the time of the murders. We're setting up the parameters so that when we do get access we can do a data dump and plug and play. Should cut down the search time considerably." Marc finished.

"They can do that?" Gail asked Ryan. Then she turned to Marc and Brandon, "You can do that?"

"Yup," they both answered then looked down at their computers simultaneously.

"Okay then. Thanks for being weird, boys," Gail said.

"When do we think that they'll give us access?" Luke asked.

"The system admin said to give them half a day. They're swamped at the moment," Brandon said but never looked up.

"That sounds like we've got time for lunch. I'm calling Diaz to pick up lunch. Who wants what?" Gail asked.

* * *

Three hours and one massive Mexican food delivery later, they had compiled everything they knew about the killer on the board. Traci was writing because they had voted and she had the best penmanship. Traci had had a few choice words of opinion on that topic, none of which would she have ever said in front of Leo. The board was covered in her neat block letters.

Occupation – Flight attendant?

Met victim while victim was on a run

common interests

setup situation where victim is invested in her well-being (good Samaritan lure)

Texted victim for weeks before murder

traces back to burner phone

flirty, intelligent texts – speaks to intelligence, patience of the killer

Drinks Kamikazes

Physical description

Blue wig?

Brown eyes

Dyed blonde hair

5'9"- 5'10"

Slender, athletic build

Then there was a separate list for the California crimes:

Why were there no texts to the four victims?

Brittany-Lynn Roberts &amp; Lily Broussard - prostitutes – no need to woo them

Barbara Bennett – texts?

Julie Hammond – texts?

Sent pic to team in CA – checking to see if anyone can ID unsub

No word on how victims may have met last woman she dated or if anyone knew she dated a new woman.

Ryan leaned back in her chair and scrubbed her hands over her face and into her hair. "So, definitely more leads here in Toronto. Brandon, make sure we push the San Fran office. There has to be more there now."

"Yes ma'am," Brandon said.

"When are we getting access to the database?"

"We're almost done downloading now. We had to set up a connection that could support the data dump that we needed to do so that we could manipulate data without compromising their working database. We had to mimic all their security protocols so that none of the information gets compromised. I had to promise the Admin my first born if anything happens," Brandon supplied.

"Is anything going to happen?" Ryan asked.

"No ma'am," they answered in unison.

Gail laughed. "You know Ryan, I gotta respect a girl who strikes fear into the hearts of men."

"Bingo! We're complete!" Marc said.

"Alright, work your magic, boys," Ryan said and winked at Gail as she said it. Gail shook her head.

Chris walked into the conference room. "Hey Gail, did you save me any food? I can't believe I got called out before I could eat!"

"Chris, if you think I saved you food, you know me even less than I thought you did," Gail rolled her eyes.

"Chris, don't worry. I saved your food," Traci said and handed him a takeout container.

"Thanks, Traci," Chris said. As he was about to walk out of the room, he turned and looked at the boards. "Wow. You guys sure don't have a lot to go on. I mean the first one could even be that girl I've gone out with a few times, Megan Stapleton."

Every head in the room turned to him. It was Gail who spoke. "Who? When did you go out with her?"

"Off and on for a while now. Nothing serious," Chris answered.

"You're running her right?" Gail asked the boys.

"Of course," Marc answered. "I'm putting the results up on the big screen. She was working flights that gave her opportunity to commit the murders. She does fit all the physical descriptors. And…" there was a ding, "we have a facial recognition match."

"Chris," Gail put her closed fist in front of her mouth for a moment. "Chris, what did you tell this girl about me?"

"What? Gail? That's crazy. She's not the one you're looking for. I've known her for months. She's not the one. This is just some weird coincidence," He tried to reason.

Knowing his dating record, Gail was not dissuaded. "Did she ask you questions about me and Holly?"

"I mean, she asked questions about my exes."

"What did you tell her? Did you tell her about us going to the batting cages?"

"Well, yeah. It's a funny story. But this isn't her, Gail."

Gail looked at him pityingly. _Sometimes I wish you had believed in me half this much. It was the thing that hurt the most Chris. You give people so many chances, but not me. I wonder why that is_, she thought and turned away from him. "Ryan?"

"The boys are going to know all there is to know about her in a few minutes. Everything that there is on record for her," she answered.

"Good," Gail responded. Not looking at him she said, "Chris, you should leave."

"Gail…" Chris started

"C'mon Chris," Traci took him by the arm, "you should go. I shouldn't have to tell you this but don't contact her."

Chris was about to leave the room when Steve Peck burst in looking directly at Gail. "Gail is your phone off?"

"No. Why?"

"Mom can't get in touch with you."

"I'm currently sending all her calls to voicemail."

"You're going to want to sit down."

"Stop being dramatic, Steven. Just say it. Whatever it is."

"Ross Perik's escaped."


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Thanks to Beta Bailey and all of you who're sticking with me and those of you who've taken the time to favorite, follow and review. I love reviews. I love your feedback good and bad. Let me know what you think. And now on with our story.**

* * *

"He fucking what?" Gail asked as she sat heavily in a chair that threatened to roll out from under her. Ryan steadied it with her boot-clad foot.

"He escaped. I don't know all the details but they were having an outbreak of what they think is food poisoning. He was exhibiting the same symptoms as everyone else. He escaped from the infirmary. He incapacitated a doctor, took his clothes, locked him in a closet, and escaped," Steve said as he knelt down in front of Gail. "You okay, Gail?"

"What kind of fucking question is that, Steven?" Gail made an angry face. Then her eyes went wide, "Holly! We have to get to Holly!"

"Holly is fine, Gail. I've got an old friend in the lab with her," Ryan said in a calming tone.

"An agent?" Gail asked.

"Not exactly," Ryan hedged.

"Well we need to get someone over there that knows what they're doing!" Gail stood up grabbing Ryan's shoulders.

"Hold your horses there, Peck. Holly hasn't been without a watchdog since right after the second body was found. Cleve is the best private security money can buy."

"Private? _Private _security? Why?" Gail released Ryan's shoulders and stepped back.

"I needed someone I could trust. Cleve used to protect the President. She can protect Holly."

"If she's so good, why is she in private security now? And who's paying her?" Gail asked skeptically.

"She and her direct supervisor had a…'spirited disagreement' and she owes me a favor," Ryan replied in her matter-of-fact way.

"How big a favor?"

"A big enough one."

"But…"

"Hey, let me call Cleve and give her a heads up. She hates surprises worse than I do," Ryan pulled out her cell and walked out of the room to make the call.

Gail sat back down in the chair and put her head on her arms on the table in front of her. Traci walked over to Steve. She angled her head toward the door in a gesture that clearly meant he was to follow her. He did so quietly.

The FBI agents continued to work. Their fingers flying over their keyboards providing the only sounds in the room. Luke sat silently in the corner, his eyes on Gail. Chris approached Gail. "Gail, I'm…I'm sorry."

Gail didn't even lift her head. "Whatever."

Steve came flying back into the room, spun Chris around and punched him in the mouth. "You son of a bitch! You're as stupid as I always thought you were!" He followed that statement with another punch to the face. Gail raised her head and stared at her brother in shock.

Traci tried unsuccessfully to pull Steve off of Chris. "Luke, a little help here?" Traci yelled at Luke who had instinctively stood up and moved toward the fight.

"I was thinking of helping Steve," Luke said as he assisted Traci pulling them apart. He turned to Chris as he held Steve back. "I mean just how stupid are you, Diaz? You know someone is killing Gail look-alikes. You know we're chasing our tails here. You don't think it's pertinent to pass on that someone had asked you about Gail and Holly? You know what kind of danger they're in!"

"I should have kicked your ass when you broke up with her, you piece of shit!" Steve screamed as Traci and Luke pushed him backward.

"Hold on there, Steven," Gail said as she stood. "Why you're all of a sudden bothered by the disaster that is my love life, I have no idea, but please stop yelling," She quelled him with a glare. Steve stopped struggling. "Now, Christopher, we might as well do this now. You're going to sit here and tell us everything there is to know about Megan Stapleton."

At that moment, Ryan ran back into the room. "Hey, Cleve said a policewoman matching Megan Stapleton's description just tried to come into the lab and get Holly to leave. The woman said I had asked her to come pick Holly up. Cleve, being the beautiful, paranoid soul that she is, was about to call me when I called. When she said it was me, the woman left. Cleve didn't follow but stayed with Holly per protocol. I told Oliver on the way in here. He has uniforms on the way to secure the lab, canvas the building and area. I'm going to the lab."

"I'm coming with you," Gail said more forcefully than she intended.

"Fine. Let's go."

"Trace, will you and Luke go over everything with Chris?"

"Sure, Gail."

"Boys, give them the room. Have Oliver set you up somewhere else for now," Ryan instructed Trask and Bishop who nodded their assent and began to pack up their things.

"Steven, you should go. Tell Mother…whatever will keep her off my back."

"Will do."

* * *

Gail and Ryan entered Holly's lab past several uniformed officers, including McNally and Collins, who seemed to be interviewing different techs that Gail recognized from her time spent in the lab. Ryan and even Gail had to show identification before they were granted access to the lab. When they entered, Gail focused on the diminutive woman standing at parade rest near a sitting Holly. She had brown skin, hair, and eyes. Her eyes were doe shaped and were on alert. She nodded at Ryan in an official way. She couldn't have weighed more than a hundred and ten pounds and was only about 5' 3". Gail was taken aback. This was the best Ryan could do? They were damn lucky Holly hadn't been taken.

Ryan made her way over to Holly and squatted down in front of her. "Holls, you okay?"

"I'm fine, Ry," Holly responded mechanically.

"You know my 'fine' rule."

"I'm okay. Really," Holly said as she looked at Ryan.

This seemed to be good enough for Ryan who stood up and was about to turn to speak to Cleve when Gail spoke, "I didn't realize that agents came in pocket sizes."

Ryan heard the telltale _thwak thwak_ sounds and spoke in warning before turning around, "Cleve…" _Thwap, thwap, thwap _and Gail's gulped breath were the only response she received. She turned to see Gail's eyes watering in pain. "Steady breaths there, Peck. Cleve has just taken away your ability to use your arm for the next forty-five minutes or so. The last three strikes were to release you from the hold before it became longer. It's not permanent but it'll feel like it's asleep and tingly for a bit." She turned to Cleve, "left arm, yeah?" Cleve nodded.

"What did you do to Gail, and why did you do it?" Holly narrowed her eyebrows at Cleve.

"Proved I could protect you. Left her use of her gun hand. Saved words," Cleve replied to Holly laconically.

"Gail, are you okay?" Holly asked.

Gail nodded at Holly and then asked Cleve, "What the hell was that?"

"Just something I picked up here and there. Courtney Davidson. Everyone calls me Cleve." She held out her hand for Gail to shake.

"Why?" Gail asked as she shook Cleve's hand with her remaining good one.

"Well, it's useful," Cleve said.

"I mean Cleve. Why the name Cleve?"

"She's from Cleveland," Ryan answered.

"Ohio? I have relatives in Xenia," Holly broke in.

"Mississippi," Ryan answered smiling.

"There's a Cleveland, Mississippi?" Gail asked.

"Yep. Home to the Delta State 'Fighting Okra,'" Cleve answered.

"What the fuck is an okra and why would I want to fight it?" Gail made a face.

"It's a green vegetable, Gail. You wouldn't be familiar with it," Holly replied with a smirk.

"Well, that explains it then," Gail curled her lip.

"Although, my understanding is that in the southern part of the U.S. people cut it up and fry it. That, I would think, might appeal to you," Holly said.

"Very good Dr. Stewart. Listen, I hate to break up this okra discussion, because honestly when is the next time I'm gonna be in one, but the two of you shouldn't be in the same place at the same time. It'll be too attractive to them," Cleve said as she gestured between Holly and Gail.

"You're right, Cleve. With Perik on the loose, and Stapleton being bold enough to come here and try for Holly…" Ryan started but was interrupted by Holly.

"Perik is 'on the loose'?! When did this happen?!" Holly demanded.

"Not sure. We found out about twenty minutes ago," Ryan replied calmly. "I guess you didn't tell her any of it?" Ryan asked Cleve.

"Not my place."

Before Ryan could explain, Holly was in front of Gail looking into her eyes, "Gail, h-…, Gail, are you okay?"

_Steve asked me the same question not a half hour ago and I wanted to take his head off. But not her. Never her. _"I'm not, but I will be," Gail answered honestly.

"Cleve, you vetted the officers on the outside?" Ryan asked.

"Nope, but I didn't let any of them in here."

"I can vouch for the officers out there. I know that they're all police officers at least. Whether their judgment is any better than Chris' I couldn't say," Gail said.

Holly looked quizzically at Gail but Ryan responded, "I'll explain it later, but Cleve's right. We need to separate you two."

"They wouldn't try anything with all the police presence here," Gail said.

"Honestly, it's not really that much more far-fetched than trying to take Holly directly from within this facility, period. A good game of misdirection, and they're in business," Ryan said.

"You said Stapleton being bold enough to try for me. Do we know who the killer is?" Holly asked.

"We've identified her as Megan Stapleton. She's been going out with Chris in a casual relationship. We were about to interrogate him when Ryan came in and said someone had tried to get you to leave with them," Gail answered.

"Oh…Gail, I'm so sorry," Holly said. Gail waved her hand away in a dismissive gesture but said nothing.

Ryan asked Gail, "You and I need to go. Who do you trust out there to protect Holly?"

"Nick and Andy," Gail responded automatically.

"Have them come in here and introduce themselves to Cleve," Ryan said. Gail walked out to get Nick and Andy.

Holly turned to Ryan and immediately asked, "How is she really?"

"No idea. How would you be? Your ex is the unwitting mole of a serial killer. Your kidnapper and almost rapist escapes from prison and your other ex is the target of an at large serial killer, not once but twice. How the fuck would you be, Holls?" Ryan snapped back uncharacteristically. Holly didn't react but Ryan apologized anyway. "I'm sorry, Holls. I'm sorry. I don't have an excuse."

"We're all under a lot of stress. It was a stupid question. Don't worry about it," Holly replied.

Gail came back in escorting Andy and Nick. "Cleve, this is…"

"Collins? Is that you?" Cleve smiled. Gail thought it looked out of place.

"Cleve!" Nick ran over, picked her up and spun her around.

"I guess they know each other," Andy said.

"We served together in Afghanistan," Nick answered.

"Briefly," Cleve said.

"You still know all that ninja shit?" Nick asked. Cleve just looked over at Gail and smirked. Nick smiled knowingly at Gail. "I thought your arm looked funny."

"Shut up." Gail flexed her fingers ineffectually.

"Alright. So, now that we've concluded ol' home week. Gail and I are going to get back to the precinct. A bolo is being issued for Megan Stapleton who is one of Chris' girlfriends. I'm letting you both know in case you've met her. She's our unsub."

"Holy shit. I thought my love life was fucked up," Nick said. Andy and Gail hit him in a different arm. "Oww!"

"I told you, we'd always have Nick," Gail said to Andy.

"That's even less comforting now than when you said it the first time," Andy said.

* * *

By the time Gail and Ryan got back, Traci and Luke were leading Chris though his relationship with Megan for the third time. "I've told you everything I know!" Chris said emphatically.

"I don't really care, Diaz. You're going to go over it again," Luke replied.

Chris noticed Gail and Ryan as they pulled up chairs and sat down looking at him. He bit back the retort on his tongue, took a deep breath and started over again. "Like I said before, I met her one morning about a year ago when I was getting coffee. We hit it off. She gave me her number. I called. We went out for drinks at a bar she knew called Amsterdam. I'd never been there before. We started seeing each other casually. She said she was a flight attendant and didn't really live here, but she crashed with some other girls that worked for the same airline. I never met any of her friends. They just all rented the apartment together so they'd have a…'crash pad.' That's what she called it. We always went to mine and Dov's apartment when we..." he looked over at Gail, "hung out."

Ryan's phone rang, "Parker. Okay. Send that information to Staff Sergeant Shaw." She hung up and told them all, "The guys got an address here in Toronto finally. Oliver told me when we got something to send it to him and he'd send a couple of unmarked cars to watch the address. Try not to scare her away. Maybe we'll get lucky."

"Maybe isn't good enough." Gail looked at Chris, "Continue."

"Well, that's the way it went. She'd text me when she was going to be in town. Never too much notice beforehand. We'd meet up a couple of times a month. Sometimes we'd go out to dinner. Sometimes for drinks. It was all very casual. Then we'd go back to my place."

"And fuck," Gail said.

Chris cut his eyes over at Gail, but then he sighed, "Yeah. Yeah. We had sex."

"And how far into it did she start asking questions about Holly and me?"

"Gail, I told them before. It wasn't like that. It was maybe like three months into it when she started asking questions about all my exes and girls I was seeing besides her. Not you. Never by name. She started asking if I had any girlfriends that were into threesomes; if I had ever done anything 'wild.' Stuff like that."

"I can't wait to hear this. And that's how _my name_ came up?" Gail snapped.

"Gail," Traci spoke in warning.

"No. I wanna know. I want to know how you came to discuss Holly and me with a serial killer."

"It wasn't like that, Gail! We got to talking about exes and I talked about you. She talked about some of hers too. She said she'd dated girls before and asked if that bothered me or if I was into it. I said I had an ex that figured out she was a lesbian. Told her about you, about Holly. Then I told her you broke up. She asked if you'd be into a threesome." Gail stared at him and pressed her lips together tightly. Chris held up his hands, "I told her you wouldn't be. I said you were pretty broken up about Holly."

"You fucking dick!"

"I didn't know Gail! I didn't know!"

"Chris, it would seem the amount of stuff you didn't know is astronomical," Gail said as she abruptly stood up and caused the rolling chair to crash into the wall. She walked quickly out of the room.

"Oh, God. What have I done?" Chris asked.


	15. Chapter 15

**Folks, thank you all so much for the faves, follows and reviews. Thanks to Bailey for being beta though all mistakes and questionable decisions are mine. I'm nothing if not stubborn. As always, please let me know what you think good or bad. I love feedback and hearing what is working and what doesn't.**

**Also, some of you may have noticed how I spell Perik. Honestly, that's not how I'd spell it if I got to name the character but that's how it appears in IMDB and in the closed captioning of Rookie Blue. It's a surname that most commonly appears in the Netherlands. I think that this is a sign that I've gone down the rabbit hole in my writing research. Still I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

By noon the next day Gail thought even Price, relentless optimist that she was, would have had to admit that they were going to get nothing by sitting on the "crash pad" any longer. Ryan's tech minions had found out that Stapleton had taken a temporary personal leave of absence three weeks ago. So she was not surprised when they got the go ahead to move on the apartment. She was, however, surprised that she was ordered to stay behind.

"What the fuck?!"

"Gail, be reasonable," Oliver said in a calm tone.

"Oliver, I'm going in there. I need to see if there's something. Maybe something meant for me," Gail responded.

"Gail, I can't let you go in there. It's too dangerous. You being there might put someone else in danger. You have to know, I can't let you go."

"You owe me," Gail said as she crossed her arms and glared at him.

"Not gonna work."

"You lied to me, Oliver. Lied to me for months."

"Gail…"

"Ollie, please. Let me do my job. Nobody knows Perik like me. What if there's something there that I would see but someone else would miss? Do you wanna take that chance?"

"Okay. But you're in the second wave. You don't go in until everything is secure. I want you in the back of the surveillance van until we give the all clear," Oliver said and Gail snarled slightly. "That's the best offer you're gonna get, Peck. Take it or leave it. We're on the move in 10."

"Alright, fine, but I resent you treating me like a child."

"Gail, you're not a child. You're a damn fine detective and my favorite partner ever. I'm not doing this because I don't think you can take care of yourself. I'm doing it because you shouldn't have to. We take care of our own here at 15, like family, and you Peck, are my first born." Gail's eyes clouded with unshed tears. Oliver Shaw was her favorite human. Oliver noticed and squeezed her shoulder. "I know, Darlin', I know."

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Traci and Luke stood in the hallway a few doors down from Megan Stapleton's Toronto apartment guns drawn. Traci took a deep breath and whispered, "You know, Jer used to not want me to get out of the van."

"Really?" Luke asked.

"Yeah," Traci answered.

"You know I can hear you losers through your radio mikes. Right?" Gail said from the safety of van.

"Sorry, Puddin' Peck," Traci grinned as she said it. Luke smiled back. "On three, ok?"

"Like 1, 2, 3, then go, or actually on 3?" Luke asked.

"Jesus! Kick the door in already!" Gail yelled at them.

"On 3," Traci said as they, and the ETF team made their way to the door.

They counted in unison quietly, "1, 2, 3!" and kicked the door in together. It swung wildly on its hinges and banged against the wall. "Police! Freeze!" Later, Traci wouldn't be able to say who was more surprised, the naked brunette woman on her knees on the floor, the naked redheaded woman sitting on the couch with her legs wrapped around the brunette on the floor, or Luke. The women managed to get themselves covered before the majority of the tactical team filed into the apartment clearing the rooms.

"Ladies, is Megan Stapleton here?" Traci asked. They shook their heads vehemently, eyes wide. "Why don't you put on some clothes." It was a statement, not a question. "We need to search the apartment and ask you a few questions about Megan." They slowly nodded their heads in agreement.

"Clear," the tactical leader spoke into his radio.

"Thanks guys. We can take it from here," Traci said to him. He motioned for his guys to follow him out the door.

After they left, Luke spoke. "I'll just go and have a look at Megan's room. Which one is it?"

"We don't really have rooms exactly. We just share with the person with the schedule most opposite from our own. She spends the most time in the last room on the left," the brunette said in a slightly accented voice from her new perch on the couch. Luke nodded and left the room.

The women finished putting on their clothes while Traci walked through the living room looking around. She was about to start questioning them when Gail walked in. "Ho-ly Shit!" The redhead exclaimed. "You're Gail!"

Gail looked at Traci and then back to the women, "I am. How do you know that?"

"I've…seen…well…you should see," the redhead responded.

"Nash! Get in here!"

Traci and Gail walked toward the sound of Luke's voice. He was in one of the bedrooms. "What is it, Callahan?" Gail asked as they entered. Luke was standing next to a desk, holding up a picture of Gail smiling and laughing. There were others behind him on the desk each more candid and personal than the next. When Gail got to the desk she carefully looked at the framed pictures. She recognized a selfie as one she'd taken with Holly, but Holly's face had been replaced by Megan Stapleton. She gestured to a now gloved Luke to rifle through the snapshots he had taken out of a desk drawer. Most of them were of her smiling and happy, uncharacteristic of her, but innocuous for the most part. She gasped when she saw the one Holly had taken in her bed the night before they broke up at the Penny. Gail was naked from the waist up, a look of complete adoration on her face. She looked happy. She looked sated. She looked like she'd just had her brains fucked out and she had. Gail remembered the night in vivid detail. A tidal wave of embarrassment washed over her.

Luke cleared his throat, "Uh, so, yeah. It looks like she's collected pics of you." Gail didn't look at him. She couldn't. "Can you identify when and where these were taken?"

"A lot of them. Not all," Gail responded.

"Okay. We're going to have to get some techs in here to collect these," he looked at her apologetically.

Traci walked up and put her hand on Gail's shoulder, "Gail, do you need a minute?"

"No. I'm fine. I want to be with you when you interview them," Gail gestured toward the living room and the two women in there.

Traci searched her face and whatever she saw there must have been good enough, "Okay."

While Luke supervised the crime scene techs in the bedroom, Traci made her apologies to the two women telling them that the delicate nature of the investigation necessitated the no-knock warrant. She explained that Megan Stapleton was the prime suspect in five murders and that if they were contacted by her that they were to notify the police immediately. She suggested after they finished with their questions that the women pack their belongings and stay in a hotel until Megan was arrested.

Gail allowed Traci to lead the interrogation. She did her best to sit still and not draw any more attention to herself. Well, any more attention than the small photographic shrine to her in the bedroom was already. The two women were Emma Rogers and Marianne Baptiste. Emma, the redhead, was definitely the more verbal of the two. Traci began leading them through the standard questions. No they didn't really know Megan all that well. They were occasional roommates. They hadn't known anything about her really, except that she seemed to be at least mildly obsessed with her "ex-girlfriend" Gail and had the photos of Gail since they met her about six months ago. Traci got the names of four other flight attendants who stayed in the apartment part time. She'd have other law enforcement agencies in their home towns track them down.

"So she said Gail was her ex-girlfriend?" Traci asked.

"Yes. She said that Gail had wanted to adopt a little girl back home and that when she had to move for work, Gail stayed behind," Emma answered.

Gail didn't respond to that, though she felt like something broke inside her. Traci asked, "How did she say she felt about Gail?"

"She was the love of her life. Absolute," Marianne responded in her accented English.

"Did she say if she kept in contact with Gail?" Traci asked.

"No. She said it was too painful but that she was trying to figure out how to…how did she put it? It wasn't win her back. That's not what she said. She said…" Emma snapped the fingers of her right hand rapidly. "She said, 'anyone who'd leave Gail without a fight deserved to be punished.' That's what she said. It sounded weird, but, honestly, not much weirder than the rest of the things she said."

Gail and Traci shared a look. "How would you characterize her demeanor?"

"Contained crazy. Like one of those really hot chicks who you can tell would be fantastic in bed but you know it comes with a side of crazy," Emma responded without hesitation. At a look from Marianne she said, "What? You know it's true. How would you describe it?"

"I would not have addressed it that crudely, but yes. Like that," Marianne smiled indulgently at her lover.

Traci had a feeling that in a moment it wasn't going to matter if she and Gail were in here or not. Gail broke the spell, "Did she ever mention anyone she disliked? Anyone in my life?" Traci frowned at her. Gail didn't care.

"Oh yeah. She hated your new girlfriend. Said she didn't deserve you. Said she didn't appreciate you. Holly, right?" Emma said.

Gail stood and began pacing back and forth. "Tell me you both know that, that there's no way I actually dated cuckoo for cocoa puffs."

"If you say so," Marianne responded in a blasé tone.

"I didn't! I…"

"Gail!" Traci yelled, "Go check on Luke and the techs." Gail looked like she wanted to argue but she walked from the room.

"Holly is her love, yes?" Marianne asked Traci.

Traci was still focused where Gail had last been in the hallway when she answered, "Yes."

"She needs to tell her to be careful then. I'm not sure there is a limit to what Megan would do to someone that she thought Gail loved more than her," Emma said.

"Yeah, we have Holly covered. Now we just have to…"

"Cherchez la femme?" Marianne asked.

"Something like that," Traci answered.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

The ride to the lab had been silent thus far. Traci thought that after Gail had insisted that they go maybe she'd open up and talk. That was not to be the case. "Gail, do you want to talk?"

"Nope."

"I know this has to be hard."

"Do you know, Trace? Do you really? Tell me how hard this is," Gail yelled.

"I'm not the enemy here, Gail."

"Fine, but you have no idea how I'm feeling here. I just got to look through pictures of me. Intimate pictures of me that no one should see. No one but…" she started but caught herself in time. "And now everyone has seen. They'll be entered into evidence. My parents…"

"Know that you're a consenting adult."

"That's never stopped them before. This whole thing makes me a…victim again."

"Stop. It does not. You're a survivor, Gail. A woman who's clawed her way back. So am I. I wasn't abducted but Perik took Jerry from me. He took away what I thought was my one chance at love. I still miss Jer. I miss him every day. But I love your brother. He's helped me put my life back together. There's life after this."

"Not for me it seems. Even in my worst nightmares, I could wake up. There's no waking up from this."

"We're going to catch her. We're going to catch them."

"You know what those photographs mean? It means someone has been close enough to Holly to copy the photos off her phone." Gail rubbed her thumb against her lips and mumbled to herself, "Why would she keep them?"

"Stapleton? Because she's fixated on you romantically it seems."

Gail looked up, surprised that Traci answered, and surprised she had spoken the question aloud at all. "No," Gail responded softly.

"Do you really not know?" Traci asked and Gail shook her head. "She loves you, Gail. Those pictures of you show a Gail that I've only seen a few times. You were happy and unguarded and the one you seem so worried about? You look like you're completely in love with whoever took it. Did you ever tell her?" Gail shook her head again. "Well, if she had that photograph, she knew. That's probably why she kept it. Maybe…maybe you should let me take the lead on this though."

"Whatever."

When they walked into the lab, Ryan met them at the door. "I called Luke. He filled me in about the apartment and the pictures. I told Holly. She's…in the ladies room…gathering her thoughts. I…I don't know if she's ready to face Gail yet."

Gail looked in the corner to the smashed beaker there. "She throw that?" Ryan barely nodded in agreement. "Then we're good. She's as pissed off as I am." At Ryan's furrowed brow reaction, Gail said, "I'm not mad at Holly."

"Well, that makes one of us," Holly said as she entered the room. Gail could tell she had splashed water on her face. Her eyes were slightly puffy but when she looked at Gail, they were clear. "Gail, you have to know I had no idea that those images had been copied, that she had anything of you."

"She doesn't have anything of me, Holly. They're only pictures." Gail could tell by the look on Holly's face that she'd said something wrong. For the life of her, she couldn't figure out what. She pushed it aside for now. "Holly, we brought some digital copies of the photos from the scene. Do you think you can identify them or at least maybe when someone could have copied them? I can't identify them all."

"Yeah, yeah. Of course," Holly said as she took the tablet from Traci. She began to flip through them her face turning grayer with each pass of her hand. When she got to the one of Gail in bed her eyes sought out Gail immediately. "I…Gail…I…"

"It's okay, Lunchbox."

"Goddammit! There's nothing okay about this. The only person that was ever supposed to see that picture….I never meant for anyone to see it. I'm sorry," Holly finished her complexion doing nothing to hide the blush on her face.

"So how long were these on your phone, Holly?"

"What do you mean?"

"We're trying to get an idea of a timeframe when she could have gotten them," Traci clarified.

"As far as I know they are still on my phone," Holly answered as she flushed even more.

"Can we see?" Traci asked.

"Yeah. Of course," Holly handed over her phone.

Traci and Gail spent the next few minutes flipping through pictures on Holly's phone. Once they had finished, Ryan spoke up, "The boys can check the phone to see if and when it's been cloned. I just got finished texting with Brandon."

"Good," Gail said. Then to Holly, "Watch your back. The roommates said that Megan hated you; said they didn't think that there was a limit to what she would do to you. Ryan, you'll keep her safe, right?"

"Absolutely," Ryan said.

Traci's phone rang. "Nash. Oliver, slow down. Yes, she's here. They're both here in the lab with me. What?! Okay. Okay. No. Luke is still with the techs processing the apartment. I'll go. Okay. I'll bring them. No, I think it's best. Because they're the most qualified. Is the location secure? Where is it? Fine. We'll be there in thirty." She hung up and took a deep breath. "There's a body. She's naked and has been carved on, then it appears dumped in Grange Park."

"Hooray. More dead women who look like me," Gail said sarcastically.

"No. According to Oliver, this one matches Holly's description."


	16. Chapter 16

**Folks,**

**I'm super anxious about this chapter. It's darker than almost anything I've written before. Trigger warnings are listed at the end of the chapter so as not to give anything away in the plot for those of you who don't want to know. For those of you who do, please look for my bolded note at the end of the chapter. Review and let me know what you think good and bad.**

When they got to Grange Park Sam Swarek was standing over what Gail could tell was a body. As she got closer, Gail could see that the body was naked. Sam stood in front of her, and spoke lowly, "Peck, you don't want to see this. Nobody is going to think less of you if you step away from this."

"I can handle it."

"Gail, I can barely handle it and she doesn't look like anyone I love," Sam reached out to hold her shoulders but stopped himself in time.

She squared her shoulders and stepped around him into something beyond her worse nightmares. Holly, _no it's not Holly_, lay on the ground. Naked. Broken. Tortured. The woman lying on the ground matched Holly's description - same height, same weight, and same beautiful brown hair. Her face was beaten so badly that if Gail hadn't known Holly was behind her pulling her forensic kit out of the SUV, she'd have dropped to the ground sobbing. Gail closed her eyes and cleared her mind. She pushed everything down. Everything bubbling up to the surface she pushed it down ruthlessly. She walked close to the body and knelt down, taking everything in, writing it in her mind. Cuts along her arms, legs, torso, hands and feet. Fingers broken. Bruising along her upper thighs. Most likely raped. This victim hadn't been washed. She was bloody still and her abdomen held another message. _Gail, she was a poor substitute for Dr. Stewart but I'll see her soon enough. All my love, Ross. _

Gail stood up and walked behind a row of bushes and did something she'd never done at a crime scene before. She puked. Everything she'd been trying to push down, everything she'd failed at, came bubbling up to the surface so fast she hadn't been able to stop it. If Perik and Stapleton had been able to abduct Holly, that would have been Holly lying there. She threw up again. She tried slowing her breathing. In. Out. In. Out. Slower. In…Out…In…Out. She wiped her mouth with her fingers and stood up. Traci was there with a bottle of water. She nodded gratefully and took a drink.

"If it makes you feel any better, I almost joined you back there," Traci said with a cheerless smile.

"It doesn't. Somebody has to hold it together," Gail responded.

"Holly looks to be doing that for all of us. She's insisting that they let her do the preliminary exam and the autopsy."

"Over my dead body."

"No, she's already done that. Now, she wants to do it over hers."

Gail began to stalk over toward Holly who was now crouched next to the body. Ryan stepped in her path. "I know what you're going to try to do. Don't. She's fine. She needs to do this."

"She shouldn't have to do this," Gail said.

"She needs this. Let her do it. She's the best I've ever seen. Let her do what she can to catch them."

"She shouldn't be doing this. This was meant to be her. This has to be freaking her out."

"Less than you'd think. She's holding it together way more than she did when the bodies looked like you."

"I don't care!"

"It's not your job to take care of Holly. It's mine," Ryan stared at her. Gail stared back. "Gail, I didn't mean…I'm s…"

"It's nothing," Gail walked away.

* * *

Ryan had argued with what she thought was every conceivable official in the Canadian government except the Prime Minister. She'd gladly go a round with him if she thought he'd make sure Holly and her team had access to the body. She'd even called her bosses in San Francisco. They'd called D.C. and someone, somewhere, had tipped the scales. So Holly was in the autopsy suite with another M.E. and together they would process the body. She figured she could live with the compromise. She understood their concerns, but Holly really was more okay with this than when the bodies had looked like Gail. She seemed to be fearless now.

She thought back to her conversation with Gail. She didn't mean to hurt her. She just needed her to back off. This was the first time since she'd known Holly that she seemed remotely okay. She didn't need Gail giving Holly a hard time when she'd finally gotten her feet under her. She'd make it up to Gail. They were all running on adrenaline and caffeine at this point. Feelings were bound to be running high as well. Yesterday, she'd nearly taken Holly's head off, and today she was so blunt with Gail that she got her to walk away. She couldn't be sure, but she felt like she'd hurt Gail. She knew better. Maybe she'd buy her some decent tequila like she had promised when they first met. Yeah. She'd do that, or donuts. Donuts would work too. She'd seen Gail eat six without taking a breath. Two dozen might start off an apology right.

In the middle of her pondering which bakery to use, Brandon came into the lab with some reports. Ryan took them and said, "Have you made any headway with Holly's phone?"

"It looks like it was copied about nine months ago. We think data was downloaded then but we don't think they had access to calls and texts after that though. Whoever did it was very good. So there's no way to trace where the information went afterward."

"Goddammit." She examined the other reports quickly. "It looks like there isn't any more information here than there was yesterday."

He looked down at his shoes and said, "That's because there isn't. Except Stapleton's address in San Fran and we sent that to the team there. They are staking it out for 24 hours before they move."

"Special Agent Bishop, unless you want Dr. Stewart on that table for real in there, you'll get me more information. She was a flight attendant for God's sake! I want to know every time she's crossed the border in the last two years. Every. Fucking. Time. I want to know how she managed to communicate with Perik. I want to know how they managed to work Perik's escape. They're in this together. You know it, and I know it."

She took a deep steadying breath and continued, "I want to know everything there is to know about both of them. I want to know what his favorite type of ice cream is. I want to know where she went to elementary school. I want every piece of information I can get on them. If you can't get it for me, I'll call Quantico and get some pre-pubescent eager beaver up here to do it for you and Agent Trask. Do I make myself clear?"

He straightened up, looked her in the eye, and said, "Crystal, Ma'am."

"Good. I need it yesterday."

"Yes Ma'am," he said and turned on his heel on his way out the door.

* * *

Holly stood, scalpel in hand, next to Harry Smith, the official M.E. on the case. Apparently, it was frowned upon to do an unsupervised autopsy on someone who looked like you with your name carved on them. Never mind that she was fine. This, she could handle. The women who looked like Gail, tortured her. This. This poor woman who, Holly had to admit, bore a close resemblance to her, only peaked her curiosity. She still felt the same amount of empathy that she did for all the dead that crossed her table but no more than that. Strange. She supposed that it was, if not scientific, at least anecdotal proof that she loved Gail more than she loved herself.

Smith's voice broke into her thoughts. "Dr. Stewart, I said, if you want, I can do the Y incision."

"No thank you, Dr. Smith. I'd prefer to do it myself."

"If you need another moment, there's nothing wrong with that. This has to be, at the very least, disconcerting." He looked at her kindly.

"It is, a bit, but…never mind. Thank you for allowing me to do this under your supervision instead of making me an observer." She nodded her head slightly in acknowledgement of his kindness.

"I know what it's like to be so invested in a case. You've been on this killer's trail for quite some time. I expect you know what you're looking for, and I know what it is to be forced to the sidelines. Call it professional courtesy."

Holly examined his weathered face, framed by dark sandy blonde hair and asked, "Did you get yours?"

"We did, but not before he killed a dozen women over a two year period and over three provinces. I had to beg to even be part of the team. I'm still convinced that I could have saved some evidence. Perhaps saved lives if they'd let me be more a part of the investigation in the other provinces."

Holly nodded at him in acknowledgement. "Well, let's hope that given this opportunity, I can take advantage of it."

"Let's hope, dear," he said as she began the incision.

Hours later, Holly was closing under Dr. Smith's supervision when Ryan entered the autopsy suite. All the samples had been sent to the various techs who were now working fervently to get answers. This body had been a treasure trove of forensic evidence. Holly had collected what she was sure was semen. She'd taken teeth impressions of bite marks on the shoulders. She'd measured bruising along the ankles and wrists where the victim had struggled against her bonds. She had been brutalized and then tossed away like garbage. A pawn for them to find in this deadly game. Holly was going to make sure that her sacrifice meant something. Ryan walked close to the table and observed the last of Holly's stitching.

"What can you tell me?" Ryan asked.

"She was not washed. She was brutally raped. I collected what I'm calling semen, unless the lab says otherwise, from her. She was most likely conscious throughout due to the bruising around her bonds where she struggled to free herself. Preliminary tox screen was clear except for epinephrine."

"Epinephrine?"

"Adrenaline. I have a theory."

"A theory. That sounds dangerously close to guessing."

"I have a theory based on the evidence we've collected thus far," Holly almost huffed.

"So tell me your theory," Ryan grinned. It was good. The banter was good. Oddly, it kept them focused.

"She was conscious throughout until she passed out from the pain. They used the epi to revive her. See the puncture wounds here? So that they could continue to torture her."

"Jesus. What else?"

"Dr. Smith and I collected two distinct bite mark impressions from the victim's shoulders. We've photographed it using a new 3D photography technique which should be more accurate."

"So he bit her twice?"

"No, they were distinctly different impressions." At Ryan's blank look Holly clarified, "I'm telling you that there were two different biters."

"They both raped her?"

"That's my theory."

"Anything else?" Ryan pulled her hands through her hair a gesture Holly recognized as frustration mixed with disgust.

"She was gagged. See the bruising around her mouth and her cheeks? They had to keep her quiet. So maybe where she was kept there was at least a small fear of discovery."

"Okay, that's something to work with at least."

"She's different than the others. It feels similar but it was different. The others were washed afterward and wrapped carefully. She was thrown away, used and unimportant. She was a means to an end for them. I got enough trace off of her to keep the lab busy for hours possibly even days."

"When can we have the preliminary reports?"

"If we work through the night, mid-morning."

"Alright. I'll let the team know. Do you need anything?

"Caffeine but I think Dr. Smith and I can manage that on our own."

"I'm increasing your protection."

"Ryan…"

"Holly. Cleve is going to take the night shift. I'm going to go over to 15 with what you have so far. Work with Luke, Traci, Sam and Gail," Ryan said and saw Holly's façade of calm professionalism crack.

"Do you know if…"

"I don't know how she's doing but when I go over I'll check for you. Want me to text you? Or should I pass you a note in class?"

"You're an ass and the boys still have my phone."

"They're done with it. Data copy done about nine months ago but only whatever was on your phone then. Nothing since."

"Well, I guess I should be thankful for that at least. About Gail, I'm just…"

"I know. Tell you what, I owe Peck some donuts. I'll take over a bribe. That'll probably make her feel better no matter what is happening."

Holly inhaled and closed her eyes. "Thank you. Thank you for everything."

"It's not a problem. It's kinda my job," Ryan said as she flashed Holly her most charming smile.

* * *

When Holly was finally able to get to the conference room the next morning, she saw Gail clutching a box of donuts like her life depended on it. She looked around for Ryan. She said quietly to her, "You didn't give her a box of a dozen donuts for herself, did you?"

"What?! Noo!" Ryan said, her face a failed mask of innocence.

"Ryan Parker! Did you give Gail a dozen donuts?" Holly narrowed her eyes. "It was more wasn't it?"

"Look, it made her less grumpy. It was better for everyone involved."

"Save Gail's blood sugar."

"We all have to make sacrifices."

"Hmm."

Oliver called them all to attention and ended any further disagreement Holly could offer. "Alright. Listen up." Traci, Sam, Luke, Gail, Ryan, Brandon, Marc, and Holly all looked at him and gave him their undivided attention. "Yesterday's raid on the apartment didn't really get us what we were hoping for. We have some photographs and some known associate interviews and that's about it."

Ryan added, "Brandon and Marc were able to determine that Holly's phone had a data copy done about nine months ago but they don't believe that they still have access."

Oliver nodded at the information. "So then we have the body. Dr. Stewart?"

Holly began, "We were able to identify her as Denise Lambert. I sent that information over to the detectives last night."

"Yeah, she was a nurse, worked in an urgent care clinic. She hadn't even been reported missing yet," Sam said ruefully.

Holly began to carefully go through the forensic data, most of it, she'd already laid out for Ryan. The lab confirmed that it was semen and it matched Ross Perik's DNA which was on file. She watched the anger on the detectives faces, watched the FBI cyber guys try to act like they weren't shocked and disgusted. She did have one more piece of information. Something that had even shocked her. "The lab checked all the body fluid evidence we found. We cross-referenced anything with the hair we'd already found to see if anything matched."

"Did it?" Luke asked.

"No, but it was a familial match."

"A what?" Traci said.

"A close relative."

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Sam said.

After a moment, Oliver put his tongue in the side of his cheek, and said, "Okay folks. We're gonna get 'em. Sammy, you and McNally are on today. Go tell her, and have her be your partner today. Nash, Peck and Callahan, go home and get some sleep for a few hours. We have every available officer out looking for them. You all have been on for over 24 hours. Come at this fresh tomorrow."

"Oliver," Gail began.

"Not a word, my petulant Peck. Not a word," Oliver said and Gail pressed her lips together in a tight line. "I mean it, Peck." She narrowed her eyes further but said nothing.

Gail continued to stew as she was escorted to her apartment. The two officers cleared the apartment and said the same thing they always said. "We'll be out in the patrol car if you need us. We can see your door from our spot. We'll be doing random patrols in the complex throughout the night. Just call if you need us."

Gail managed a "thank you" that she didn't think sounded snarky.

Gail took off her service weapon and put it on the coffee table. She left on her light jacket. She was cold. She didn't know if it really was getting cooler or if she was just in a little bit of shock. She took out her notebook and began looking through it but realized that her eyes were so tired she couldn't read it. She turned on the television. She couldn't concentrate. She was restless. She'd much rather be working on trying to find these maniacs. Waiting was nerve-wracking.

She'd been home about two hours when she fixed herself a late lunch and opened a beer. Halfway through it, she realized something was very wrong. She had just enough time to hear her locks being picked. She tried to stand, get to her gun, but her legs gave way. She looked up from the floor to see Megan Stapleton standing above her.

"Gail, it's so nice to meet you at last. Uncle Ross will be so pleased." Then everything went black.

* * *

**Trigger Warnings for mentions of rape, abduction, torture, and incest.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Here you go folks. Thanks to Bailey for being the best beta. We went back and forth on this chapter more than once but still all mistakes are mine. Thank you all for your faves, follows and reviews. Let me know what you think about this one. I'm curious.**

* * *

Ryan wiped ineffectually at her bleary eyes as Cleve and Holly made their way into the hotel suite. Ryan had been asleep on the sofa for the better part of the last four hours. Cleve had agreed to stay the extra hours with Holly so that Ryan could be at least half awake for her protection duty.

"Do you have the heat on?" Holly asked as she walked into the room.

"What? No. Something must be wrong with the air-conditioning," Ryan yawned.

Holly picked up the phone. "Hey, this is room 417. I don't think our air is working…the whole floor? I see. Is there anything that you can do? I see. No, that's fine. Thank you."

"What did they say?" Ryan asked.

"They are going to have someone bring up some fans," Holly responded.

"Did you say the entire floor's air units were out?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah."

"When will someone be coming up?" Cleve asked.

"In just a little bit," Holly answered.

"I'll stay for that. Ryan you have your weapon?" Cleve said and Ryan just shot her a look. "I had to ask." In response, Ryan actually rolled her eyes.

In not very long at all, there was a knock at the door and a male voice coming from the other side, "Ma'am, we have your fans."

Cleve motioned for Holly to stay back. Her hand on her weapon, she checked the peephole. She pulled her jacket over her pistol and signaled an all clear to Ryan. Opening the door, she stepped back so that if need be, Ryan still had a clear shot. Holly watched this interaction with interest. It was like watching a choreographed dance between two experienced partners.

A young man in his twenties in a bell-hop uniform walked in holding a box fan and an oscillating fan on a stand. "Umm, where would you like them?"

Ryan answered, "In here is fine. Thank you."

He put them down. Plugged them up and before Holly could move to give him a tip, Ryan stood up and did so. She walked him to the door. It wasn't until he left that Holly realized that Cleve had shifted subtly so that she was always between him and her.

"I think you two are being overly cautious," Holly sighed.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did you miss the fact that you autopsied yourself yesterday? My job is to keep you safe and I'm going to do it," Ryan said heatedly.

"Look, I don't want to piss you off," -Holly held up her hands in surrender- "I'm just saying that I don't think there will be a threat this soon."

Uncharacteristically Cleve spoke, "Are you willing to bet your life on it?"

Holly looked at her and considered. "No."

"Then do as we say," Cleve replied.

"Haven't I always?" Holly smiled.

"Yes, but now is the time when people get sloppy. They are going to get desperate. Now is the time to remain vigilant," Cleve said.

"Thank you, Mad-Eye Moody." At Cleve's blank look and Ryan's barked laughter, Holly sat down heavily on the large puffy chair next to the couch.

"Cleve isn't much for pop-culture," Ryan grinned.

"Good to know."

Ryan looked at Cleve and said, "I told you, you should read Harry Potter." Cleve just narrowed her eyes in response. "What was the last book you read?"

"The Art of War"

Ryan shook her head. "I'd've thought you slept with it."

"Didn't say it was the first time I'd read it. Just the last book I read."

Before Ryan could retort, her cell rang. "Parker. What?! When? How? Okay…No, we're good here. We're fine. You'll keep us posted?" She put her left hand over her eyes and rubbed her brow by pulling her fingers and thumb together. "Just…just let us know something as soon as you can. No. We need to keep Cleve fresh. I'll send her home. Send the other officers. Make sure it's someone you can vouch for personally. I know, Oliver. I know."

She hung up her cellphone and looked over at Holly who asked, "What is it?" When she didn't respond right away Holly asked again, "Ry, what is it?"

Ryan pulled her hand through her hair. "They've taken Gail."

"No!" Holly yelled.

Ryan walked over to Holly and held her in the chair. She knelt in front of her. "Holly, we still have to keep you safe. You have to stay here."

"What do they know?" Holly asked wild-eyed.

"The team in front of Gail's apartment complex didn't report in so they sent another patrol. They found them in their squad, drugged they think. They were unconscious but alive. They went in to Gail's apartment. They had to break down the door. It was locked from the inside. There were signs that she'd maybe made a meal. They think possibly there was a struggle. They're going to test the beer it looked like she was drinking - see if she was drugged like the other officers."

"There wasn't anyone inside protecting Gail?"

"No. She adamantly refused to have anyone in her apartment, said it made her feel like a victim again."

"How long?"

"They're not sure."

"What are they doing to find her?" Holly asked.

"You know they're doing everything they can," Ryan said softly.

Holly grabbed Ryan's arms. "You have to go! You have to go help them!"

"No. I have to stay here and keep you safe. That's what Gail would want me to do. You know that, Holly. You know it in your heart," Ryan spoke to Holly like she would a trapped animal.

"What about what I want?! Does anybody give a damn about what I want?!" Holly was screaming now.

"I'll go!" Cleve interjected, reaching her hand out to Holly. "I'll go," she stated more calmly.

"Cleve," Ryan warned.

Undeterred Cleve pressed on, "I'll go. I'll drop in and talk to the Staff Sergeant. Shaw? Right?" Holly nodded in response. "Okay, then I'll swing by before I go to my room. Is that okay?" Holly nodded again.

"Cleve, you need your…" Ryan began, but was interrupted by Holly reaching out and holding Cleve's hand.

"Thank you," Holly said as she closed her eyes. "Thank you."

"I'll go right now," Cleve said and looked to Ryan for her approval. Ryan nodded in response. "Good. It's stifling in here. Reminds me of Jackson in July."

"You're getting soft in your old age. This is nothing compared to Houston," Ryan said smirking.

"Just because you can exist without air-conditioning is no reason to do so. It's what separates us from the animals," Cleve deadpanned.

"True story," Ryan said as she stood and began to walk Cleve to the door. She whispered, "I don't have to tell you what to share and not to share do I?" Cleve tilted her head and rolled her eyes. "Didn't think so. Okay. Be careful."

"You do the same, Parker. I'm not answering to your mama. She scares me."

"Daddy wouldn't let her hurt you."

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Cleve said opening the door.

Ryan closed the door and turned to Holly who looked, like she was in shock. "Why don't you go take a shower and change? You kinda smell like the morgue and now that I'm up, it is kinda hot in here."

"It's amazing you're still single."

"Indeed. It's a mystery."

"Fine. I'm going. I'm going." Holly stood.

"You'll feel better," Ryan said and then added, "Not much but a little bit." Holly just walked into the bathroom to take her shower.

She stood under the spray for a long time crying. Big heaving sobs. She knew logically she had to calm down. She wasn't doing anyone any good in here hiding. She even prayed to a god she wasn't sure she believed in to keep Gail safe. When she felt the air kick back on, she knew it was time to get out. She toweled off and dressed quickly in running shorts and a t-shirt not bothering to dry her hair or put on shoes.

Walking back into the living area she saw Ryan heading toward the door. "Cleve can't be back already can she?"

"No. The front desk called and asked if we could return the fans. They are used in the laundry room and the folks there are pretty miserable without them," Ryan answered as she checked the peephole again. She saw the same young man as before so she opened the door.

"Ah," Holly nodded once.

Once Ryan got the door open she took about a half a second too long to realize something was wrong. The young man looked even more nervous than before. She saw a shadow to her left too late to do anything about it. She was braced for a fight but not for 50,000 volts of electricity from a Taser. After about ten seconds she fell to the ground and curled up in the fetal position.

Holly stood motionless. Frozen. The young bell hop, and a woman she was sure was Megan Stapleton entered immediately and closed the door. Then Megan spoke into a walkie-talkie, "Clear. Come on up." Holly was weighing her options when Megan looked at her, "Don't get any ideas, Dr. Stewart. If you move or make a sound, I'll incapacitate you, and kill them both with this." With her other hand she pulled a 9mm Sig out of the small of her back. Holly nodded in acknowledgement.

Megan set the Taser down on the desk near the door, pulled a bag of zip ties out of her jacket pocket and threw them at the bell hop. "Tie her up and gag her." She gestured to Ryan who was still laying on the floor convulsing slightly and threw a large knotted rag at him. He did as he was instructed. "Now, take her gun. Two fingers. Left hand. Slowly and hand it to me." Again, he did exactly as he was instructed. "Now get their cell phones and hand them over. Yours too." He picked their phones up off the coffee table and as he handed them over, Holly saw his hands tremble.

Soon there was a soft scratching at the door. Megan pointed at the bell hop and gestured with the gun, "Open the door." He moved to open the door and Ross Perik walked into the room pushing a laundry cart.

"Where's Gail?" Holly couldn't stop herself from asking.

Perik all but shivered in excitement, "Oh, you'll see her soon enough Dr. Stewart. We wanted the two of you together for your final act." He looked over at the bell hop then nodded to Megan. She pulled a cylinder out of her jacket pocket. Holly recognized it instantly as a silencer.

"No!" She was cut off by Megan drawing and firing another Taser at her. Holly had just enough time to wonder exactly how many weapons Megan had brought before she felt like her body was on fire. All of her muscles contracted painfully. She knew intellectually that she had only felt the effects for a few seconds but it was so painful. She had recovered enough to open her eyes when she heard a sound like a watermelon hitting concrete. The young bell hop had fallen on the floor in front of her with a bullet hole through his forehead.

"Help me tie her up and get her in the cart," Perik ordered.

Holly felt her body being bound then lifted. Then she was covered up with a sheet. She had an irrational thought wondering if the sheet was clean or not. _Probably not._

"Not that I don't trust you, Dr. Stewart but you see you really can't make any noise," Perik said as he pushed a wet handkerchief over her nose and mouth.

_Chloroform you cannot be serious! What is this the Green Hornet? Sleepy…so…sle…_

* * *

Ryan had been watching helpless from the floor. She hated being tased. They tased them at the academy so that they'd know what to expect when it happened. _A fat lot of good it did her. Goddammit! That poor kid laying on the floor dead over there. Holly being trussed up like a calf at a rodeo and loaded into a laundry cart. God. Where was Cleve when she needed her? She sure could use a ninja right about now._

"I'm going to take Dr. Stewart with me. You follow along later. We don't want to be too suspicious," Perik instructed Stapleton.

"Can I have this one?" Megan gestured to Ryan on the floor.

"Are you sure you can handle her?" He asked.

"Please. She's still down from that tase. I have another Taser, a syringe fixed up and the gun so I don't have to wait around for her to die."

"Did you cut the phone cords?"

"I have their cell phones," Megan held them up in her hands.

"No!" Perik yelled and Megan flinched in reaction. "You young people never think. The phones in the room.

"Oh!" Megan moved swiftly and cut all the phone cords with a knife. She returned to the room and smiled at Perik. "Now, can I have her?"

"Alright. But be quick. No dawdling. I want to get started tonight. You don't want to miss it."

"I won't."

He reached over and cupped her cheek, "Now go and get the elevator. I don't want to be out in the hallway any longer than I have to be."

"Of course," Megan stepped out of the room and Ryan fought the urge to be sick.

"Agent Parker, I do regret that our association will end here. If it is any comfort to you, I'm sure that Megan will treat you exactly the same as the other women she's so masterfully entertained. Sadly, you're just not special enough to accompany Dr. Stewart and Gail. I have very special plans for them." In answer, Ryan weakly spit around the gag and tried to get it on his shoes. He kicked her in the stomach. She didn't think he broke any ribs but goddamn it hurt. She was saved from any more repercussions by his walkie-talkie signaling with a beep. "I'm telling Megan to teach you a lesson Agent. She is very good at it." Ryan just closed her eyes and gritted her teeth against the pain.

As soon as the door closed, Ryan was digging in her boot for her knife. Her fingers felt like they were asleep. Fatter and clumsier somehow. She managed to flip the knife open and hold it between her feet. She slid the blade carefully between her hands and managed to cut her bonds without cutting her hands too much. She rubbed her wrists. She only had a few more seconds. _Stay on the ground and catch her off guard or hit her as soon as she walked in the door? _

* * *

Gail didn't know how long she'd been out. She just knew she had a screaming headache and her hands and legs were bound to a table. _Fuck. Not again._ Don't panic. Don't panic. _Wait. My head hurts but that's…that's…_that was when Gail realized she had awakened to the sound of Holly screaming.


	18. Chapter 18

**Folks,**

**I'm putting the trigger warnings here so no one misses them - death, torture, cutting, violence, kidnapping, restraints and mentions of rape &amp; incest. I think that's all of them. If I've missed anything that causes you any issue, please let me know and I'll add them.**

**Thanks again to Bailey for being beta, she saved you all from a tense shift that would have given you whiplash.**

**Sorry you all had to wait so long on this one. It's about twice as long as the other chapters have been so hopefully that eases the pain a bit.**

**Rookie Blue characters are not mine. I get no payment but reviews. So... :D**

* * *

Gail didn't know how long she'd been out. She just knew she had a screaming headache and her hands and legs were bound to a table. _Fuck. Not again._ _Don't panic. Don't panic. Wait. My head hurts but that's…that's…_that was when Gail realized she had awakened to the sound of Holly screaming. Her instinct was to struggle against her bonds right away but she fought that down. Maybe they hadn't noticed her yet. She barely opened her eyes peering out of her lashes. _Not blindfolded_. That was good at least, but all she could see without turning her head was the ceiling. Wood. Unfinished wood. Holly was still screaming but it was less pain and more frustration. She could hear Perik walking around the room in those goddamn wingtips.

_**Okay, Gail, what's the first thing**__?_ Damn this was going to be so much harder if she kept hearing her mother's voice. That was going to get annoying. _Assess the situation. __**What is it then?**__ Restrained. Still slightly drugged. Assests…_Gail flexed the fingers of her right hand carefully and tugged on the hem of what she hoped was her jacket sleeve. _Oh sweet Jesus on a pogo stick! The bastard left her jacket on!_ _Calm. Breathe even. Don't want to get caught. __**Now what? **__It's there. _

Gail could've cried. She carefully and slowly worked her fingers around the single razor blade she had stashed in the jacket hem. She took a chance and turned her head slightly. She saw Perik bent over Holly's feet. He seemed to be studying them. _Where was Stapleton? That was the million dollar question._

Holly had her eyes screwed shut. Perik was talking mostly to himself but still acted like he was addressing Holly. "Dr. Stewart, I can't tell you how happy I am to be able to entertain you at long last. You know the last time I had Gail over we were rudely interrupted. This time I'll finish what I started."

He moved and Gail caught the flash of a scalpel. He had made cuts on the bottoms of Holly's feet. That explained the screaming. Holly's feet were very sensitive. She and Gail had been to get pedicures when they first became friends and Holly giggled the entire time. Gail had secretly thought it was adorable. _That son-of-a-bitch. He'll pay for that. Making her suffer. Turning a memory into ash._

"They're going to find us. It would be better for you if you turned yourself in," Holly said shakily.

He laughed, a high-pitched maniacal laugh. "Dr. Stewart, I assure you no one is coming for you. Least of all here."

"Where is here?"

_That would be good information to know. Keep him talking, Holly. If he's talking, he's not cutting on you._

"Ah, ah, ah. I'm afraid that's need to know information, and you don't need to know."

"Why? Are you afraid that I'll tell someone?" Holly asked sarcastically.

"Good. You're in good spirits. That'll help. We probably need to set your pain threshold before Gail wakes up. It'll be more accurate."

He leaned over Holly then and made an incision along the length of her shin. She screamed in pain and kept screaming. Gail had worked the razor blade out of the cuff of her jacket and had managed to make some headway on the restraint on her right hand. Her legs and left arm were still bound but with a few more minutes she was fairly certain she could free her right hand. Unfortunately, that meant listening to Holly being tortured and remaining silent.

"Now, Dr. Stewart, on a scale of 0 to 10 what is your pain level?"

"You're insane," Holly sobs out.

Perik takes the scalpel and puts it on Holly's left forearm. "You're right handed. Correct, Dr. Stewart?" Then he twirls it against her skin making a round cut.

"Arrrggghhhhh!"

"Now. What. Is. Your. Pain. Level?!"

"Kiss. My. Ass."

He drove the scalpel into her forearm sinking the blade. She screamed again. "You can stop this. Just tell me your pain level."

Gail couldn't stand it any longer. She made sure her right wrist looked like it was still bound. She tucked the razor blade back in the jacket sleeve and tried to sound like she was just coming to. It wasn't hard. "Don't you fucking touch her again!"

Perik whipped around and faced her. "Gail, so nice of you to join us. Dr. Stewart here is being less than cooperative. I had such high hopes for her."

"Why is she here, Ross? You and I both know that I'm the one you want," Gail did her best to look him in the eye.

He laughed again, and it was the most terrifying thing Gail had ever heard. "Because of you Gail. Because you love her."

Gail felt all the blood drain out of her face. If she was honest, it felt like her asshole was trying to fall out of her body. She'd never had this feeling of dread before, not even the last time she was in a basement with him. She tried to keep her voice steady, "Then you fucked up. Let her go, Ross. She has nothing to do with this and she means nothing special to me."

"Gail, do not make me angry. Do not lie to me. If Dr. Stewart meant nothing to you, I'd have had Megan kill her a long time ago. The only reason she's alive now is so you'll be honest with me," he said and Gail looked at him in confusion. "Tell me how you feel about Dr. Stewart, Gail. Tell me honestly. I'll know if you're lying." He turned and walked behind Holly, trailing the scalpel over her neck dangerously.

"She's a good person, Ross. She doesn't deserve this. Let her go."

"Tell you what. How about I cut her carotid and paint you in her blood. How would that be?" He asked and Gail licked her lips nervously in response. "Tell me!" He pushed the point of the scalpel against the pulse point in Holly's throat.

"She the most wonderful person I ever met!" Gail screamed.

"Go on," he said and removed the scalpel.

Gail knew this was a bad idea but he wasn't torturing Holly and had even moved away from her somewhat. Holly's eyes slid shut with relief Gail thought. Gail was afraid to lie so she just began saying whatever came into her mind. "She's beautiful, and smart and sexy and…what do you want to know, Ross?" Maybe she could get him talking. Buy herself and Holly some time.

"No, Gail. It doesn't work that way I'm afraid." He turned and cut Holly's cheek with the scalpel.

"Stop! Stop! I'll tell you whatever you want to know! Just stop hurting her!"

"Ahh, can you hear it? The desperation in your voice? It's like a fine wine to me, Gail. You know there are very few things in life that can bring me pleasure. I'm sure you know that. I'm sure you've read my psychological file. But that timbre and pitch is almost more satisfying than taking a woman," he said as he rubbed himself with the hand not holding the scalpel.

Gail got an all too accurate picture of what was about to happen. She had to buy them time. "Where's your minion, Ross?"

"She'll be along in a bit. She's busy entertaining Dr. Stewart's friend, Agent Parker. I wonder if she'll beg. It's always satisfying to make the arrogant ones beg." He smiled cruelly.

Gail felt a shiver run up her spine and an overwhelming sense of pity for Ryan. She'd done nothing to Gail really. She'd even been honest with her about her relationship with Holly. Ryan didn't deserve that. Perik still hadn't gotten close enough to Gail for her to chance trying to free herself. "I hope Parker kills her."

"That would be a miracle. The last I saw of Agent Parker she was tied up on the floor of their hotel room and was still recovering from the beating I gave her. Megan is well-versed in several forms of combat. Megan was determined…how did she put it? Not to be a 'victim' again. I just had to explain to her that it was better to be the devil's right hand than to be in his path."

"Is she really your niece?"

"Yes. My sister's daughter. I began her training early. She was ten. A precocious child. But alas, I got bored. You see, I preferred less fuss. Too many questions about where she got her bumps and bruises. So I found out that women of the night were much less trouble. I could do anything I wanted. I could watch the light drain out of their eyes. No one really came looking for them until you showed up. Bad luck that." He twirled the scalpel. "Then, I contacted Megan again. She tried to tell me that she wanted nothing to do with me but I knew her secret you see. So, eventually, she knew what she had to do. I had to promise that she would get to help."

"Help kill the women?"

"No, Gail. To help kill you. She can't stand that you've become so important to me. She can't stand not being my 'best girl.'"

Gail felt a wave of nausea roll over her and it had nothing to do with her impending death. He was a monster who had created a monster. His sexual abuse of his niece had broken her irreparably. She blew a breath out of her mouth. "Okay. I'm on a tight schedule here as you can see. So when does she get back to help kill me?"

"Oh it's not that simple. I owe you. I was just ending their lives and I never really challenged any of them. Before Ms. Lambert, I didn't realize just how satisfying that it could be to see what their limits were. It's like a whole new world has opened up for me. I really am grateful. Grateful, yes. That's what this emotion is."

Gail swallowed and licked her lips. "Are you grateful enough to let us go?"

"See, I told Megan you had the most wonderful sense of humor. She didn't believe me. Now back to the subject at hand. Dr. Stewart. Your feelings for her. Remember, I'll know if you're lying."

Gail closed her eyes. She saw no way around it. This was not the way she wanted to say it. Where. To whom but if it kept him from cutting on Holly, at least for now, she didn't have many other options. "She's the love of my life."

She saw Holly's eyes widen at this revelation. She couldn't imagine why. _She was there wasn't she? Does she think I talk like that to everybody? How is this surprising news?_

"Oh, how delicious. I think I'm going to let Megan take her first while you watch."

"You fucking bastard!" Gail screamed. She could think of nothing worse than having to watch helplessly as Holly was raped.

"And you Dr. Stewart, How do you feel about, Gail?" She didn't answer for a moment and he started walking to Gail. "When you fell after Megan shot at you, you hurt your pisiform bone in your wrist didn't you Dr. Stewart? How about I make you both match?" He picked up a hammer.

"I love her! I love her, more than I love anything or anyone!"

"Your fear. Your fear is so delicious to me. I really can't wait on Megan much longer. Excuse me I'll be right back." He pivots then and turns on an MP3 player hooked up to some speakers. _Addicted to Love _comes on. "How apropos. Entertain yourselves."

As soon as he walked out of the room, Gail removed her right hand from the restraint. Holly looked over and said, "Thank God. I was trying to keep him from looking over there."

"You knew?" Gail asked quietly.

"I saw you wake up. Then I noticed you were fiddling with your wrist. I was hoping you had a 'trick up your sleeve.' See what I did there?"

"God, still such a nerd," Gail said as she began undoing the restraint on her left hand. Then she did her feet. Gail slid off the table silently and quickly made her way to Holly. She began to untie her. "So you love me, huh?"

Holly looked into her eyes seriously. "Yes."

"Why all the 'I don't want to see her' bullshit then?"

"Sue me. I was trying to avoid you being tied to a table. Can we talk about this later?"

"Yeah," Gail said as she struggled with Holly's leg restraints.

"He's coming Gail! He's coming!" Holly whispered urgently.

_**Assess the situation, Gail. You have to make a split-second decision, the right split-second decision. **__Okay. Surprise attack. It's the only way. He probably still has the scalpel but he left the hammer._ Gail picked up the hammer and twirled it in her right hand. Its weight was comforting and a little reassuring. She hid behind the door. He'd be focused on Holly as he walked into the room. She was still lying on the table looking like she was still bound. As soon as he looked to his left, he'd know Gail wasn't there. She took a steadying breath. _Just like good ol' Mom trained you. If nothing else, he can't get Holly. I won't let him hurt Holly anymore._

"I can't get Megan which probably means she's in the dead zone and should be here soon," Perik was speaking before he entered the room.

Gail swung the hammer at him and it landed satisfyingly on his right arm with a crack. He screamed in pain and lunged at Gail. They hit the wall. She was able to hit him again with the hammer but not as hard. She grappled with him trying to keep his hands off her neck. She decided to go for power with the hammer and hit him as hard as she could in the ribs, again and again, and again. She saw Holly struggling with her bonds out of the corner of her eye. Her last blow made Perik begin to retreat. He was moving towards Holly. She launched herself at him and they went bouncing off the wall. He managed to push her down and ran up the stairs.

"Stay here! Stay here until I come get you! Find a weapon in case I don't come back!" She screamed as she hurled herself up the stairs.

Holly got off the table carefully. She wasn't sure if her leg or feet would hold her. She would need to see to the bleeding as soon as Gail got back. _If Gail got back._ "Of course I have to be in love with the idiot that launches herself at a serial killer like it's nothing. 'If I don't come back', honestly, who says stuff like that?" She took a few tentative steps. There were sounds of a struggle above her. It sounded like the upstairs was exploding one piece of furniture at a time. She found another scalpel. _Well, that would have to do._ There was a crash above her and she listened as the struggle died out. Then someone was coming down the stairs. She held her breath.

It was Gail. Covered in blood from head to toe. She staggered back into the basement. "Oh my God, Gail! Is that your blood, honey?!"

"No, but you need to come see. See if you can save him." Gail spoke in an emotionless monotone. Holly figured she was in shock.

"Okay, but I'm going to need your help. I'm not sure I can walk without leaning on something."

"That's fine. Hop on my back. I'll piggyback you up the stairs."

When they got to the living room Holly could see what made all the noise. Every piece of furniture in the room was turned over, or broken, or both. Ross Perik was lying on the floor with a table leg sticking out of his chest. Holly knew that there was nothing to be done for him. Nothing that didn't involve a team of trauma surgeons.

Gail gently let Holly down so that she could kneel next to Perik. Gail kicked his leg with her foot. "Ross! Ross, you piece of shit! Where are we?"

"Going to hell," he murmured, his eyes still closed.

"You first. You sick son of a bitch."

"Mr. Perik, where are we so I can tell the emergency responders?" Holly asked hoping his sense of self-preservation would kick in.

He opened his eyes and chuckled weakly blood running out of the corner of his mouth. "I'm afraid the only phone is sticking in my lower back. Good luck, Dr. Stewart. Megan will be here soon." He closed his eyes and took his last ragged breath.

Holly felt his neck for a pulse. It was weak and slowing. Then it stopped. "He's dead."

"Good," Gail spit blood out of her mouth.

"Was he telling the truth about the phone?"

"Only one way to tell."

They worked together to roll him over and sure enough, a cordless phone was shattered and parts of it were sticking into Perik. Holly couldn't think about the force required for that.

"Gail, let me look at you."

"I'm fine. You're the one with incisions everywhere. I need to check you over."

"As long as I don't try to stand and walk, I should be okay for now. Are you bleeding anywhere? Is that all his blood?"

"Just my mouth I think. He split the inside of my cheek. Lucky punch. Yeah, it's all his. The table leg was handy and I was getting tired." Gail looked at Holly then and it was desperate and pleading.

"Gail, I know you wouldn't have killed him unless it was absolutely necessary. Not being sorry you did it isn't the same as enjoying it. He was an evil, evil man who planned on torturing and killing us both. It was him or us. Thank you."

"What if I am sorry? Does that make me weak?" For once, the vulnerability was plain on Gail's face.

Holly's heart broke a little bit. "No, Gail. It makes you remarkable. It makes you a very special person."

"Yeah, well…let me look at you." Gail knelt down next to Holly and reached out to touch her injured cheek.

Holly looked into Gail's eyes, "That girl had an arsenal the last time I saw her. I don't want to be here when she gets here. Wherever here is."

"Okay. Let me look around and gather some stuff up. Can you stay here?"

"Yeah," Holly nodded.

"I'll be right back."

It was creepier sitting next to Ross Perik's dead body than Holly thought it would be. She was around death all the time. She'd autopsied hundreds upon hundreds of bodies. Dead bodies did not freak her out. The thought of Ross Perik not being dead? Now, that freaked her out. The music finally stopped. _Gail must have turned off the music. Thank God_. Holly just stared at Perik. Stared at him until she had the irrational thought that he moved. _That's impossible._ She had it again. _How long had Gail been gone? _She started to move to back away from him and managed to open the cut along her tibia more. "Shit!"

"What is it?" Gail yelled as she came running back into the room holding a large duffel bag. It looked to Holly like she'd managed to wash the blood off her face and hands. She still had some on her clothes but she looked significantly better.

"It's nothing. I just managed to open the cut along my lower leg more."

"I need to look at it."

"No. We need to go. I have no idea how long I was out and you were out at least an hour longer than I was. We have no idea where we are or when she might get here. Did you find any cell phones? They took ours at the hotel."

"No, but I did manage to find a first aid kit. Let me look at your leg."

"Gail, I really want to leave. I'm assuming there's a car or something."

"Yeah. I found keys by the door that I'm hoping fit the nondescript van outside."

"Fantastic. Help me up. I'll look at my leg in the van."

Gail wanted to argue but she didn't. "Fine. Put your arm around my shoulder then." She leaned down to help Holly up. "Why aren't you wearing more clothes?"

"I'd just gotten out of the shower." The room started to spin for Holly.

"I see," Gail grunted with the effort it was costing her to bear Holly's weight.

"Whoa."

"What's wrong?"

"The room is spinning."

"Hold on to me. I've got you. Don't let go. Can you walk or do I need to carry you?"

"Don't be silly. I can…" Holly stopped speaking as Gail picked her up. "Well then. It's amazing you can do that with those skinny arms."

"Shut up and hold on to me, Lunchbox." Gail staggered but she held their weight. She managed to get Holly into the passenger seat of the van. "Put your feet up on the dash. I'll go back and get the duffel and first aid kit."

Gail returned a few minutes later, duffel in hand. She opened the back of the van and threw it inside. She dug in it for a moment and handed the first aid kit to Holly. Holly took it in her hands gingerly and said, "Thank you. Thank you for everything."

Gail's eyes hardened. "It's nothing. You shouldn't've been here at all. Let's get out of here." Gail walked around the van and took keys out of her pocket. She climbed in, put the key in the ignition, said a prayer and turned the key. The van cranked. "Thank God," she murmured.

Holly reached out for her hand. "Let's go." Gail took it and squeezed.

* * *

**Special thanks to Orphan Black for reminding me about single blade razor blades. **


	19. Chapter 19

The door handle to the hotel room turned. Ryan took a deep but quiet breath. _I can't kill her. She's the fastest way to finding Holly and Gail. I can't kill her. Shit. Killing her would be easier._ The door opened. Ryan pressed herself against the wall, still gripping her knife in her right hand, blade pointed to her elbow. Hoping.

Ryan knew the moment Megan was aware that something was wrong. Her posture stiffened almost imperceptibly. Ryan braced for the blow but it still hurt like hell when it landed on her left side. She moved her right hand out, close to her own body and over the inside of Megan's right arm. The knife sliced though her jacket and shirt, and into her flesh.

"Ahhh!" Megan screamed and Ryan couldn't help thinking it sounded more like sexual arousal than pain. They continued to struggle. Megan blocked another knife thrust, and landed a punch of her own to Ryan's mouth. "Agent Ryan, I had no idea you were such a bad girl. Bringing a knife is entirely unacceptable. No matter how arousing I find it. How about I use it on you when I get you tied up properly again? Hmm?"

"God, you're such a fucking crazy bitch!" Ryan punched Megan in the eye with a left jab.

"Sweet talker," Megan grunted out as she kneed her in the stomach.

Ryan followed that up with an elbow to Megan's face. "Crazy." Another punch. "Ass." Another. "Bitch." She pushed Megan back. Given space, Megan reached into her jacket pocket. Ryan lunged for her before she could reach her gun. Megan grabbed Ryan's knife arm and twisted so that she had Ryan's face pointed to the floor her arm stretched out behind her. She twisted the knife out of Ryan's hand. The only way for Ryan to get out of the hold was to dislocate her shoulder.

"Crazy has its advantages," Megan said.

"Yeah, it does," Ryan said and twisted her body dislocating her shoulder. She spun out of the hold and used Megan's body weight against her pulling her forward. Fighting with only her left arm was problematic but not all that unusual for Ryan. They exchanged a series of blows that were more successful for Megan because Ryan could no longer lift her right arm to defend that side of her body. She managed to push Megan back and spun quickly on her left leg. Her right boot heel catching Megan in the temple. "At least_ my_ crazy serves the greater good," she said looking down at Megan's now still body.

She walked over to the wall and slammed her right shoulder into it, snapping it back into place. "Fuuck!" Taking a moment to breathe through the pain, she watched Megan carefully. Then she walked over and searched her pockets throwing the guns out of both their reaches. She finally found what she was looking for and zip tied Megan's hands behind her back. Once that was done she resumed her search. She found the cell phones. She took hers out and dialed the last incoming number. "Oliver, it's Ryan. Perik has Holly now too. I have Stapleton at the hotel. Send a team and EMTs. We're gonna have to interrogate her, but she's gonna need some medical attention. So am I for that matter…Yeah…I'll be here."

* * *

The hotel room was full of police officers and crime techs. The Toronto Police Department had put out an APB for Perik and every available officer was looking but Oliver, Traci, Luke and Cleve were all in the room. The bellhop's body had been removed by the morgue team. Everything was being expedited. Ryan, however, felt like things were moving at glacial speed.

"If you don't get your hand out of my face, we're going to have a problem. I told you, all I need is a sling for my arm and a shot for the pain," Ryan snarled at the male EMT whose nametag read "Gibbons".

His female partner "Maclean" tried a different tact. "Agent Ryan, you have a laceration above your eye. We need to clean it and at least put a butterfly Band-Aid on it or it will leave you with a nasty scar, and while I myself find it kinda hot, you might regret it later. C'mon, it won't take long at all." She smiled. Ryan looked her over. She had dark brown hair, bright blue eyes, and lips that Ryan was pretty sure should have been illegal.

Ryan rolled her eyes. "Fine. Whatever. Get it over with, and for god's sake gimme a pain shot."

"There's a good girl," Maclean said and Ryan glared at her.

Oliver thought the look on her face was very reminiscent of one of Gail's faces and he knew what was coming next. "Now, darlin', let's not let our emotions get the best of us. Have you let them look at your ribs?" Ryan turned her glare on him. "Now, now, I think you should let them look. You've been holding your good arm against them. I noticed."

"You are so annoying, Oliver. I just need a pain shot. Then I need to interrogate freaky-deaky number 2 over there." Ryan nodded her head toward a semiconscious Megan Stapleton.

"I'm not letting you interrogate anyone while you're under the influence of a pain shot," he said.

"Fine. No pain shot."

"No. You're going to let them close that cut above your eye, check your ribs and they will give you a sling and a pain shot, not necessarily in that order."

"You seem to forget that I'm not under your authority."

"Ahh, right you are, Agent, but you are here at my discretion. That's my police detective that's missing. Do as I say, okay? We're all on the same team," he said and smiled at her.

"Goddammit. You all are so unnervingly polite."

Maclean laughed. "I can bitch at you a little more while I take over cleaning your cuts if that'll help." She sat in front of Ryan and began assembling what she'd need to treat her face.

Ryan sighed. "That won't be necessary."

"We're a full-service outfit. It's no trouble." Maclean smiled with those illegal lips as she moved to clean the cut above Ryan's right eye. She dabbed carefully with antiseptic. Ryan hissed. Maclean laughed softly.

"You find this funny?"

"Yeah, I do. You have a dislocated shoulder. The way you're holding your ribs makes me think that they're cracked at least, if not broken, and you're being a big baby about a cut above your eye," Maclean smirked those lips as she replied.

"It stings," Ryan said trying not to lip look her.

"And the others?"

"They don't sting."

"Um hmm. Well, here's that pain reliever. Hopefully, that takes care of the sting."

"Thanks. So…Maclean. You got a first name?"

"Mackenzie"

"Mackenzie Maclean?"

"Yep. I think my parents hated me."

"What do your friends call you?"

"Believe it or not, Mac."

"I should've seen that coming."

"You really should have. Are you sure you don't have a concussion?"

"No."

"You really should get checked out at the hospital. Get the ribs x-rayed."

"I can't. I have to find my friends. Please." Ryan put her hand on Mac's forearm.

"You can't go to sleep. Not if you have a concussion."

"I don't think that'll be a problem. I won't sleep until I find them."

Mac slipped the sling over Ryan's head and gently placed her arm inside. She tried to keep the smile off her face when she said, "Always get your man like Dudley Do-Right?"

"He was a Mountie. I'm a federal agent."

"Of course. How stupid of me."

"And didn't his horse solve all the cases?" Ryan scrunched her face up in thought without wincing about the pull on her cuts.

"I see the pain meds have kicked in, and I think it might have been his girlfriend."

"Yeah. That sounds right."

Mac took a card out of her pocket. "Here. Take this. Call me if you have any more pain, or if you have any questions. I can't write you a prescription for the pain, but I have a friend who's an ER doc and she'll write you one if you let her examine you briefly."

"Thanks," Ryan replied holding up the card. "That's very kind of you."

"I'll confess I have an ulterior motive. I figured it was the best way to give you my phone number," Mac said not the least bit embarrassed. In fact, she seemed…confident, Ryan thought.

Ryan was taken aback. She'd had the most unbelievable day. Tased. Tied Up. Attacked. Shoulder dislocated. Now she was being flirted with by a beautiful woman. "Uhh…"

"Hey, it's fine. You don't want to use the number, you don't have to. I just wanted you to have it, and if you call, and don't want anything other than medical advice or medical favor, then that's fine too."

"Thanks." It was all Ryan could manage under the circumstances.

Then before she knew it, the tall drink of water that was Luke Callahan was in front of her. He looked at her relief clear in his eyes. "Parker, you okay?" He reached down and gently cupped her cheek. _What the hell?_ The most unbelievable day.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Or I will be. Mac here has fixed me up." Ryan gestured gingerly with her injured elbow in the sling.

"Oh. Oh, yeah. That's good." Luke seemed to come back to himself. "So Stapleton is waking up now. I think given that it's the Superintendent's daughter, we might be able to bend the rules a bit. You up to asking some questions?"

"Abso-fucking-lutely"

* * *

Traci led the interrogation mostly. Sam and Luke sort of faded into the background because Megan refused to speak to them. Traci carefully laid out what they already had on Megan so that she would know that her cooperation was the only way she was going to get anything out of this. Megan was still resolutely silent when she wasn't making inappropriate comments.

"Detective Nash, I'm sorry we didn't get the chance to know each other better," Megan said as she smiled menacingly, at least as menacingly as she could in handcuffs.

"Megan, be reasonable. Tell us where Perik has taken them. I'll talk to the prosecutor on your behalf," Traci said.

"Yeah, somehow I don't think leniency is in the cards for me. Do you?"

"I swear to God, if something happens to them, you will regret it to your dying day. If you live that long," Ryan growled.

"That makes no sense," Megan said and tilted her head.

"Please just let me interrogate her! Just leave me alone with her for a bit," Ryan pleaded.

Traci looked over with a mixture of regret and pity. "No, as tempting as that is."

"Megan, you have to see that it's over for you. Do you want Ross Perik to get away? Do you want him to have fun without you?" Ryan asked, hoping she was hitting the right buttons.

Megan laughed and Ryan thought it was reminiscent of one of Perik's crazy laughs. "You have no idea what you're talking about Agent Ryan."

"So tell me."

And she did. Over the next hour, Megan Stapleton laid out a story of abuse and terror that had pity stirring even in Ryan's heart. Ryan wouldn't excuse her for what she had done in the last year, but what had happened to her as a little girl? Any defense attorney worth their salt could turn that into something that they could work with. Ryan looked over and saw Sam gripping the back of his chair so hard his knuckles were white and she thought he must be dealing with some of the same feelings she was.

"So your Uncle Ross now has Gail Peck and Holly Stewart because you helped him abduct them. You have to understand that anything that happens to them is on you," Traci said.

"Detective Nash, do you really think that your punishment scares me? You can't make my life any more hellish than it's already been. Prison, death, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter anymore. Not to me," Megan said and closed her eyes.

"Why did you help him?" Ryan couldn't stop herself from asking. "Why? You knew what he was capable of. You helped him escape. You helped him hurt other people. You raped and tortured those women on your own. I don't understand. Why?"

"I haven't been on my own since I was ten years old. He's always with me. I didn't have a choice."

"That's bullshit! Everyone has choices. Even if they're shitty ones. You didn't have to kill those women."

"You don't understand, Agent Parker. I wanted to. I wanted to hurt them. It kept me from being like them."

"And made you like him."

"Perhaps."

"There's no perhaps about it, Megan. You're a monster. A monster I'll extradite to the States so you can face a possible death penalty, if I have to. Tell me where they are!" Ryan jumped up and grabbed Megan by the collar with her good hand. Traci pulled her off.

"Let's take a break. Let's just take a quick break," Traci said.

"Fine!" Ryan stomped out of the room.

In the hallway, she called Brandon on her cell phone. "Brandon, I need you to find a link between Stapleton and Perik. She's his niece. I need you and Marc to find me something. Find it fast. What if it's a family property? Yeah…yeah. Their lives depend on it. Let me know as soon as you have something. Maybe we'll get lucky. Thanks."

* * *

**A/N: If Mac seems familiar to some of you, she is in fact from Waking Up. I just love her. Thanks again to Bailey for being beta. Please let me know what you think about this chapter, good or bad.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Hey Folks,**

**Here in Atlanta it's Pride weekend. So let me say to you, Happy Pride Y'all. I wanted to post this as my pride gift to you. Sorry it's been so long. Life has been busy. Good, but busy. This has not been beta'd so if you find any mistakes let me know. I promise not to make you wait so long on the next one.**

* * *

Gail had been driving for over an hour. They had gotten to the end of the secluded driveway of the cabin, and based on the sun's position in the sky, Gail had turned south onto a bumpy two lane road that barely had what Gail would classify as pavement on it. In fact, it seemed to be a mixture of gravel and pavement. Their pace had been slow because she was trying not to jostle Holly around too much as she tended to her injuries. Finally, they came to an actual road. It was only two lanes, but Gail felt her heartbeat slow a little bit in relief.

She looked over at Holly who was gritting her teeth while applying antibiotic ointment to some of her more minor injuries while holding pressure on others. "Hey, how you making it over there?"

"The adrenaline is wearing off. It hurts like a bitch."

"So like me then," Gail said and smiled.

Holly looked over and smiled despite her pain. "You're not a bitch, Gail." Gail started to smile. "You're a brat," Holly said and smiled wider.

"Ouch, Lunchbox. You've really honed your smartass skills while you've been away."

"Yeah, well, you know how it is, serial killers to chase, verbal repartee to hone," Holly said as she looked down into the first aid kit in her lap. "Shit. There is no kind of analgesic in here. Stupid psychos."

Gail laughed. She couldn't help herself. "I'll get you to somewhere with lots of drugs. I promise."

"I know you will. I trust you," Holly said as she looked over at Gail. Then she looked out the windows. "Any idea where we are?"

Gail didn't want to worry Holly but she didn't want to lie outright. "A vague one. We're probably north of Toronto." In response, Holly just cut her eyes at her without saying a word. "I said it was vague. I mean I was out for the entire drive. When did you wake up?"

"I woke up on the table. I watched him set up all his 'tools,'" Holly said and shivered involuntarily.

"I'm so sorry, Holly. You shouldn't have been there at all."

Holly reached over and took Gail's right hand off the steering wheel and held it in her left. "Gail Peck, this is not your fault. You haven't done anything wrong. You saved my life back there. You are so amazing. So stop it right now. This is not your fault."

Gail didn't say anything but she squeezed Holly's hand as she turned her eyes back to the road. It was getting darker and for the first time she noticed the headlights begin to flicker in the dusky light. She quickly scanned their surroundings knowing that flickering headlights headed a list of mechanical problems, none of which were good. There was nothing. _Fuck._

* * *

Ryan was focusing on her breathing. She was desperately trying to squash the impulse to grab Megan Stapleton by the neck with her good hand and squeeze until Stapleton quit breathing or passed out, whichever came first. Ryan wasn't picky.

"Go over it again," Traci said.

"Which part Detective Nash?" Megan smiled back at Traci lasciviously. "Did you want me to go over how I stalked the women? How I convinced them to go out with me? How they begged for their lives? What part?"

"Don't get cute. We were specifically talking about the events here in the hotel tonight, after you abducted Detective Peck. How exactly did you get in?"

"Oh. That was easy. I hacked their environmental system. Took out the air-conditioning on the entire floor. Made it look like a system failure. Waited until they called for assistance. We knew that they were on the floor. I was monitoring the calls into the front desk."

When Traci tilted her head, Megan responded, "Hacked that too. I knew what Dr. Stewart's voice sounded like. Once we had that, we watched and we waited. I turned the system back on and we waited for the front desk to collect the fans. I knew that it was just you and Holly in the room." Megan nodded her head at Ryan. "I am sorry we didn't get to know each other better Agent."

"You crazy…" Ryan's tirade was interrupted by her cell phone ringing. "Parker…yep…yep…okay…yeah…we'll be there as soon as we can get there."

"What is it?" Traci asked recognizing the excitement in Ryan's voice.

"Megan, you wanna tell us about your stepfather's family's cabin?" Ryan asked as she smiled. The look on Megan's face said it all.

* * *

The third time the lights flickered Holly, bandaged feet and legs now resting gingerly on the dash, noticed. "What's wrong with the van, Gail?" She asked holding pressure on the incisions along her shin.

"Huh?"

"Gail, I know you have an idea. What is it? The battery?"

"You know, for a nerd, your mechanical knowledge is sorely lacking."

"I'll buy a book when we get home. Stop stalling."

"Alternator. I'm looking for somewhere to park it for the night if need be. Though a friendly gas station with lots of people wouldn't go amiss. But I don't want to stop unless we have to. I'm gonna keep driving it until the engine stalls out."

"How long will that be?"

"Soon. You should prepare yourself. We might have to walk."

"Gail, I've been looking. He was a physician, yes, but he was no surgeon. He tried to avoid any major blood vessels but he went deep. I'm not really sure I can walk without doing damage and if something ruptures, I…we'd have to stop the bleeding in a hurry."

"Are you telling me if you have to walk, you could bleed to death?"

"It's a possibility. Also, my feet are in no shape to hold up my weight. I'll probably bleed through the bandages in a little while in any case."

"Lunchbox, how bad is the bleeding?"

"It's not good, Gail. I bandaged them but I'm going to need medical attention. Soon. I can tell you some things to do but…"

"Holly, we're getting out of this. Both of us." Gail reached over and took Holly's hand in hers. "I'll figure something out. If I have to get out of this damn thing and push. I'm getting you out of here."

"What if we run into Megan?"

"We'll figure it out. Your brain has to be bigger than hers."

"I don't think she's going to challenge us to a debate, Gail."

"I just mean we can outsmart her. Besides. I haven't seen any signs of anyone around us. No lights from houses. No cars. It's eerie. I'm looking, so I think we have a good shot of seeing her coming."

At that moment, the van lurched forward and sputtered. Gail cursed under her breath trying not to alarm Holly, but Holly yelled in excitement and pointed, "Gail! Is that a building up ahead on the right?"

Gail turned her head in the direction Holly was pointing. "Way to go, Lunchbox! That looks like maybe a mile. We can make that. Looks like they're closed but we can make it." Gail smiled at Holly and Holly grinned back.

It was a close thing, but just as the van was dying, they pulled up alongside a gas station that Gail immediately recognized had not been in service for quite some time. Their bad luck was continuing. Gail noted the slump to Holly's shoulders and knew that she had spotted the signs of desertion as well. "We should hide the van," Holly said. Gail nodded in response and pulled it behind the station to a wooden barnlike structure.

"Can you slide over here and drive it in if it's clear enough to get the van in?"

"Yeah. Can you help me?"

"Sure." Gail put the van in park. Then she slid one arm under Holly's knees, and one around her back pulling her over into the driver's seat mostly on top of Gail.

Gail felt Holly's breath hitch. "Hey."

"Hey," Gail breathed back but snapped herself back to reality quickly. "Are you going to be able to drive with your feet?"

"I'll manage."

"Okay." Gail opened the door and extricated herself carefully from under Holly. Standing in the open door she said, "I'll open the door and check it out. I'll motion to you to pull in if it'll fit. Put it in drive and keep your foot on the brake. If it dies, I'll push it the rest of the way in." Holly nodded in response.

Gail shut the driver's door carefully and walked up to the wooden doors of what she supposed was a garage of some type even though it was shaped like a barn. She swung the doors open slowly and carefully, mindful of anything that might scurry out at her. Swiping away at the cobwebs, she got her first look at the interior. The floor was concrete and relatively clear. She pushed a few boxes out of the way, took a quick look around and then gestured for Holly to pull the van inside.

The van died just as Holly pulled it into the garage. Gail opened the back cargo doors and then opened the driver's door for Holly. "C'mon, Lunchbox. Lemme get you comfortable while I look around." Again, she slid her arms around Holly and picked her up.

Holly wrapped her arms around Gail's neck and held on. "You know this 'me Tarzan' thing you've got going is really attractive don't you?"

Gail rolled her eyes and said, "Funny."

"I'm not joking," Holly said as Gail lowered her gently into the back of the van.

Gail swallowed slowly and backed away. "Stay here. There's a sleeping bag and some supplies in the duffle. Get comfortable. I'm going to take a look around."

"Okay," Holly said softly in response.

"Don't worry. I'll be right back. Promise," Gail said and then turned away. Holly watched her as she took one last look at Holly before closing the swinging wooden doors to the garage, leaving Holly in mostly darkness save the overhead light in the back of the van.

"Well, that went well," Holly said sarcastically, rubbing her forehead with her fingertips. She reached behind herself for the duffle intent on looking through it and forgetting the look of regret on Gail's face.

Gail chided herself as she looked for a way into the gas station proper. _She's not yours anymore. She never was. She needs to go back to her life in San Francisco, safe, away from all this. You brought this on her. She could never forgive you. Not really. She thinks she does now, but when the nightmares come, you'll just be a reminder of this whole horrible mess. Because of you, she might die. Because of you, she'll be scarred for the rest of her life. You don't deserve her. She deserves better._

She wiped the grime off the back window and peered inside. The window was close enough to the door that Gail thought she'd be able to open it from there. She broke the window with her elbow and carefully reached inside. She unlocked the door and it opened only after she hit it with her shoulder several times. She looked around coughing. "Hello!" She called and listened. "That was useless. You know better. Great. I'm talking to myself out loud now," she muttered.

The inside looked like it had been abandoned, inventory and all. Wrappers, plastic bags and cardboard containers that had once contained food were scattered around the interior. Gail didn't want to think about the different types of wild life that had done that. It looked like it was done by small animals, mice, rats, maybe raccoons or other scavengers. So that ruled out staying inside the building, no matter how tempting that might be. No way was Gail staying somewhere that something could crawl into that easily. She looked for anything to help dress Holly's wounds but didn't find anything that would work unless they were desperate. However, she did find some salt, bottled water, canned beans, a can opener, plastic silverware still in the package, and a pot. She walked into the kitchen and found some dishwashing liquid and washed everything but the sealed plastic utensils off. She put everything in a plastic crate so that she could carry it back to the van when she was ready. In the back office, she found an old touchtone phone. She crossed her fingers and picked it up. Dead. "Fuck! I guess that would have been too easy."

On her way back into the garage she noticed a metal fire pit on a stand. One of those that people had in their back yards in the suburbs. God, how she hated the suburbs. She opened the doors to the garage and put the crate down on a workbench. "Be right back," she said to Holly as she walked back outside.

She dragged the fire pit inside. Then went back out and gathered kindling and some smaller pieces of wood. Realizing that there was an easier way, she went back into the store and found some lighter fluid and a few lighters. There were no candles or flashlights in the store. She checked twice. When she got back into the garage she put the fire pit near the open cargo doors of the van. Then she set about getting the fire ready.

"You want me to help?" Holly asked with the sleeping bag wrapped around her shoulders.

"Nah. Stay there. I've got it," Gail answered not looking up from her task.

"When did you learn how to build a fire?"

Gail did look up then. "Are you doubting me, Lunchbox?" Gail asked as she arched her eyebrow.

"You hate camping. You said so yourself. You…you're really building a fire," Holly said as Gail poured a little lighter fluid on the wood.

Gail took a deep breath and made eye contact with Holly again. "Just because I hate something doesn't mean I don't know how to do it." She sighed. "My parents made me and Steve camp every single holiday for a few years. It was part of…becoming a Peck. It was never fun. Never something to enjoy…" At Holly's sad look she tried to lighten the mood. "and, you know, I'm not real fond of wild life."

Holly smiled. "I remember. It was a baby squirrel, Gail."

"Rodent after my cheesepuffs."

"You left them unattended."

"You distracted me," Gail said, before she thought better of bringing up the memory of Holly kissing her senseless on a picnic table in the park.

Holly cleared her throat, "Uh huh. Yeah. I guess I did."

Gail picked that moment to light the fire. "Whoa!" Holly said as flames shot up in the air.

"Settle down, nerd. It's fine. I've got it under control. I need it to burn hot and quickly so that I can put some of the bigger wood on the fire. We're going to need to stay here vs. going inside. I think staying in the van will be best, for both of us. I want to get some heat going in here. Once the fire stabilizes, I'll cook us something to eat."

"What are we having?"

"Beans."

Gail wanted to check Holly's legs and feet before the battery burned out and they lost the overhead light. Once she finished, she'd turn the light off and try to save the battery just in case they needed it later for something. She washed her hands with some soap and bottled water near the workbench. She walked back to the van and said, "Okay, let me look at you."

"Probably be better if you climb in here," Holly said.

Gail just nodded. She climbed in and knelt next to Holly. She very carefully removed the soaked bandages. Holly had gotten the bleeding to slow down and almost stop. That was incredibly good news. She pulled new bandages out of the first aid kit. "Lay back. I can do this. Rest your head on the duffle."

"So you're going to dress my injuries without any help from me then?" Holly asked as she did as Gail instructed and rested her head on the duffle so that she was looking mostly at the top of Gail's head.

"Yep."

"Learn that on holiday too?"

"Yep."

"I don't remember you being quite this laconic."

"I'm concentrating."

"Five syllables. At least that's improvement."

Gail raised her head and rolled her eyes. "What do you want to talk about, Holly?"

"I don't care. Just talk to me, Gail. I've…missed you so…take my mind off the pain," she hissed out.

"Alright. I have the highest closure rate for any detective in the metro-area."

"That's really impressive," Holly said through gritted teeth. "Is that what you want?" She asked and then sucked a breath in through her teeth.

"What do you mean?" Gail stopped what she was doing momentarily.

"I mean. I always thought you'd be a T.O. like Oliver. Is that what you want?"

"I'm good at it." Gail shook her head slightly because of course Holly would know that about her.

"You pointed out earlier, just because you don't like something doesn't mean you can't do it. The reverse would seem to be true as well."

"I like working with Traci. I like putting away the bad guys. Homicide is always hard because, well because, the crime has already happened. Somebody's dead, but someone still needs to pay. As much as I resent them sometimes, my family…they made me believe that being a police officer stood for something bigger. Stood for justice. They haven't always acted that way themselves, but that's what they instilled in me."

"God, you are so amazing, and you have no idea."

"Shut up, Lunchbox," Gail said as she went back to bandaging Holly's feet and legs.

"I mean it, Gail."

Uncomfortable with the moment, Gail continued to wrap Holly's feet. "You know we should probably elevate your feet if you're having pain. That might help."

"I know. I'll lay like this. I think that'll be enough."

"How much pain are you in?"

"A fair bit."

"What if we play a game?"

"A game?"

"Yeah. You can ask me anything and I'll answer honestly."

"Anything?"

"Yeah. Anything."

"What about me? What do I have to do?"

"Well, you are injured so, we'll limit your truth to five questions. How's that?"

Holly smiled despite the pain. "Very generous."

"Shoot."

"What were you thinking when you kissed me in that interrogation room the first time?"

"I told you. You just needed to stop talking," Gail said and Holly tilted her head in response. "Fine. You were so worried about me. You lied to get into the building. You waited for me in the hallway. You dragged me into that room so that you could be alone with me, so you wouldn't 'embarrass' me while you checked on me. Then you were rambling like a crazy person. No one had ever showed me that they cared for me that much, and I decided to stop fighting what I had been wanting for a few weeks, maybe longer if I'm being totally honest."

Holly furrowed her eyebrows, and Gail thought she was biting back what she wanted to say. Holly took a breath and Gail would bet she changed what she was going to say. "Longer, huh? How much longer?"

"Uh…I'm not sure." Gail went back to tending to Holly's injuries.

"Really?"

"Really. I'm trying to be honest. I really don't remember the first time. I kept telling myself it wasn't like that, but it was."

"It was for me too," Holly said to the top of Gail's head hoping Gail would look up but she didn't. "So…what was it like to be undercover for so long? Do you enjoy it?"

"Ha," Gail said then seemed to think better of it. "You know there were times I have to say that I did. I mean, in general, it was awful but I did like not being a Peck. That and being able to punch Alfonso Rubirosa in the nose. That _was_ fun."

"And he is?"

"Oh, a hitman."

"Oh," Holly said quietly.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. That just sounds really dangerous. I didn't think about it that way."

Gail secured a bandage and looked up. "What did you think that I was doing, Holly?"

"I don't know. Observing and reporting…From a safe distance…maybe?" Holly shrugged.

"Gah, you still have no idea what it means to be a police officer. Here. Give me your left hand. I want to look at your forearm," Gail said and reached out to hold Holly's left hand and gently held her arm. She felt the connection to her toes but she tried not to show it.

"Gail," Holly breathed out.

Gail cleared her throat and looked down at Holly's arm. "It doesn't look nearly as bad as I thought it would. Here. Hold this for a second."

"Gail, please."

Gail looked into Holly's eyes and couldn't for the life of herself look away. "I…I can't."

"Please, honey."

Gail hesitated a moment more and then braced her arms on either side of Holly and kissed her tenderly. Holly brought her good hand up to curl her forefinger in the collar of Gail's shirt. Gail thought she'd never forget how Holly kissed, but her memory, her trained memory, paled in comparison to this. Weak from blood loss, supine, and only touching Gail with her lips and one finger, Holly made her head swim.

"Damn," Gail said as she pulled back and rested her forehead on Holly's.

"I forgot how good you are at that," Holly said and smiled.

"I was just thinking the same thing."

"I love you so much."

"I love you, Lunchbox," Gail said as she leaned back on her knees to sit up. "But right now we have other things we need to concentrate on. I have to worry about keeping you safe and getting you somewhere with good drugs. I promised. So can we not stop this but, like, put it on hold for a bit?"

"Gail, I…fine, but we're talking about this when we get back to civilization."

"Good. Now let me look at that arm. Then I'm going to make you something to eat."

"Gail Peck cooking for me, I never thought I'd see the day."

"It's just beans. Wait until you have them. They're not all that."

"Still counts as cooking," Holly smiled.

"Be careful. You might regret making that determination ahead of time," Gail said and Holly just laughed in response.

All in all, the beans weren't bad for what they were, and they took Holly's mind off the pain in spurts. After they were finished eating, Gail took away the leftovers and put them up on the workbench. She put another log on the fire. She noticed Holly shivering and breathing rapidly.

"Are you cold?" Gail asked as she pulled in part of a wooden pallet to elevate Holly's legs.

"I don't think so. I think…I think I'm going into shock."

"Well, let's try getting you warm. See if that helps at all," Gail said as she climbed behind Holly. "Give me this." She took the sleeping bag from Holly's shoulders and carefully put Holly's legs in it.

"But, won't you be cold?"

"I have on a jacket. Besides you're going to keep me warm," Gail said as she leaned up against the wall of the van. She pulled the bagged Holly between her legs and wrapped her arms around her. "There. Now, let's see if we get you warm, you stop shivering."

Holly practically purred in response.

"Better?"

"You have no idea."

Gail must have drifted off at some point because she woke up later to Holly groaning in pain. "Holly," Gail said as she shook her. "Holly, wake up." No response. "Holly!" Gail felt a wetness around her legs. "No! No! No!" she screamed as she pulled back to the sleeping bag to expose Holly's legs. Blood, Holly's blood, was soaking everything.


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N - Again unbeta'd but I didn't want to keep you all waiting. Let me know of any errors. Feedback is always most welcome. Thank you for all your faves, follows &amp; reviews. Keep 'em coming. :)**

* * *

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Do not die on me, Lunchbox! I will never forgive you if you die on me!"

_**Think, Gail. Think. What's the first thing? **__Stop the bleeding. I can't see where it's coming from._

Quickly crawling out from behind Holly she got out of the van, added salt to one of the previously unopened bottles of water still on the workbench and mixed it up. Another part of her Peck training. Salt was an excellent natural cleanser and even though it would hurt Holly intensely, it was the best she could do. They had officially reached desperate.

She ran around to the front of the van and turned on the overhead light, bottle still in hand. She crawled in back and said out loud, "Hopefully, you won't feel this but if you do, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all of this. Please don't die."

With that, she poured the salty solution over the wound on Holly's right leg. As far as Gail could tell, that's where the majority of the blood was coming from. She used the bandages to wipe away the excess blood and found the source of the bleeding. Using a fresh bandage, she applied pressure with her hand for ten minutes. Still applying pressure to keep the bandage in place, she checked around her hands and the bandage for signs that the wound was still bleeding badly.

She then stripped off her belt and secured the bandage on Holly's leg. She was careful not to dislodge the bandage knowing that if she removed it, even to check the bleeding, she could cause the bleeding to worsen again. She cleaned the other leg to make sure that it wasn't still bleeding and said a silent prayer of thanks that it wasn't.

She gently pushed Holly's hair back from her face. "Holly, Holly, can you hear me? I'm not leaving you, but I have to do something. I have an idea. I have to try something. I can't wait around for you to bleed out. I can't be responsible for that too. So, just try not to die. I'll be right back. Okay?"

Getting a stick from the fire, she wrapped it with a rag she found in the garage making a torch. Like a woman possessed, Gail ran into the store office. The phone was hooked into the wall with an old-fashioned jack. She jerked it out of the wall then began the delicate task of splitting the wires with a knife she found at the checkout counter. She'd seen a telephone pole outside and hoped she knew how to do this.

Theoretically, even if the line to the store was dead she should be able to tap into the main wires. She worked as quickly as she could. She found some metal wire clips in the store and hooked them to the telephone wires. If this worked, she was going to have to thank her mother. _Goddammit._ If it came to that, she'd be thankful. Hell, she'd even be gracious. She'd do anything, anything to save Holly, celebrate anything and anyone that saved Holly.

She found a bag and put the phone in it. She figured that she'd been away from Holly for about ten minutes. She didn't like that and wanted to go check on her but she needed help to come soon and the sooner she did this, the sooner they could get there. She ran outside and to the bottom of the pole. She'd have to climb it up to the point where she could use the pegs. The bag with the phone hung around her neck she shrugged out of her jacket and twirled it so she could use it as a rope. _How am I going to see up there? I'm going to have to take the torch. _She put the stick in her teeth, the burning end as far away from her mouth as possible. Then she put her jacket around the pole and climbed with her feet, sliding the jacket up in increments with her hands. It worked, but she was relieved when she could rest her feet on the metal pegs, wrap one arm around the pole and hold the torch in the other. The torch was smoking and getting into her eyes.

Eyes watering, she tightened her grip around the pole with her arm and wiped at her eyes with the inside of her other wrist being careful not to touch the torch to the wire or lose her balance. She moved the torch to the hand around the pole holding on tightly with her elbow. Digging the knife out of her pocket she began to peel away the outer wire covering. Once she got the inner wires exposed she put the knife between her teeth and moved the torch back into her free hand. She held it up and examined the wires, memorizing them. Torch back in the hand around the pole she took the knife out of her teeth. She threw a small plea out into the universe that this worked and began cutting. It took several tries and she almost fell a few times but she was finally able to connect the phone's wires to the line. She pressed 0 for operator and waited.

"Operator."

"This is Detective Gail Peck with the Toronto Police Department."

"Hello?"

"Hello. Can you hear me?"

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

"Goddammit!" _**Think, Gail. Think.**_

She pressed the 1 three short times then three long then three short. S.O.S. Hoping the operator knew Morse code. She kept at it over and over only pausing long enough to listen for a response. _Please, God. If not for me, then for Holly. I'll give her up. Just don't let her die._

"Hey, listen, I…are you okay?"

S.O.S.

"That's…that's S.O.S. I'm recording this. I don't know Morse code but I'll get someone to translate it. Go."

Gail started the message. **To Toronto PD. Perik dead. Escaped cabin. Went South. Send EMS. Holly hurt badly. Peck.**

"Okay. Can you stay on the line? Give me one long beep if you can."

Gail answered with a long beep.

"Good. I've got my supervisor working on this already. She was in the navy." The operator was going through the standard just stay on the line be calm speech when she stopped and began again. "Okay. Is this the message? One long beep for yes and a short one for no. 'To Toronto PD. Perik dead. Escaped cabin. Went South. Send EMS. Holly hurt badly. Peck.'"

Gail answered with a long beep.

"We're to send this to the Toronto police department?"

Gail answered with another long beep.

"You're Peck?"

Another long beep.

"Do you know where you are?"

Short beep.

"Don't worry. We'll have the technicians check the lines. They should be able to track down a signal. Are you still good to stay on the line?"

Short beep.

"Are you safe?"

Short beep.

"Peck. We're sending this to them now. Help is coming."

Gail didn't know how she wanted her to say thank you so she just answered with a long beep then disconnected. She had to get back to Holly. She dropped the torch on the ground and cautiously made her way down dropping the last few feet and landing awkwardly on her feet, falling to her side. But she couldn't worry about that now. She got up, picked up the torch and ran back to Holly as fast as she could only limping slightly.

"Holly! Holly!" She checked her pulse. It was thready at best and Holly was still unconscious. There wasn't any new blood so she had done everything for Holly she could. What she needed to do now was make sure that any possible rescuers could find them easily. She went back into the store and found all the lighter fluid she could carry. Assembling another small fire outside the garage that wouldn't be visible from the road, she spent the next hour pacing between keeping the small fire going and Holly while she built a larger pile of wood that she could ignite at the first sign of help.

Gail checked on Holly rubbing the inside of her wrist to check for a pulse. Finally, Holly's pulse slowed to the point where Gail was beginning to beg God to spare her making those deals that people make when they are desperate. _Please, please let her live. Just let her live. I don't care about me. Why couldn't it be me? You know how dark the world will be without her. Without her goofy, nerdy jokes. Without her crooked smile. Without her beautiful eyes and her even more beautiful brain. Let her live. Not for me. For her. I swear. I know this is my fault. I won't wreck her life again. I'll make sure that she's as far away from me as possible. Please. Please. _Gail closed her eyes and pressed the back of Holly's limp hand to her forehead.

That's when she heard it. Off in the distance. It was a helicopter. Helicopter meant law enforcement. It was quite possibly the sweetest sound she'd ever heard. "Holly! Holly, you hear that? It's the cavalry. You hang on. Don't you die on me now. You're gonna live a long and happy life from here on out. I'm going to make sure of it." She squeezed Holly's hand once for luck and ran out to light the bigger signal fire. If she'd thought it would do any good, she'd have burnt the store to the ground too.

She heard them change direction slightly and start to fly toward the fire. They landed on the road on the other side of the store. She recognized Parker immediately by her long loping stride. "Peck, where are you?!"

"Over here! Holly's in the garage. Did you bring EMTs?"

"Hitched a ride with them in the chopper. They're unloading the stretcher now. How bad is it?"

"Bad," was all Gail could get out in response.

"All right. They'll take good care of her. Traci and the others are all coming to process the scene at the cabin with the local l.e.o.s. I'm assuming if Perik is dead there's a scene."

"Yeah," Gail answered as she watched the EMTs, one male, one female, run into the garage.

"All that can wait. I know you'll want to go with Holly. We can interview you later. Are you okay? They should check you out too. You look like hell."

"It's amazing you're still single."

"Yeah, Holly said the same thing. So you ride back in the chopper with her and I'll wait here for Traci, Luke and the rest of them."

Gail shook her head and looked away. "I'm staying. You go with Holly. Where are they taking her?"

"St. Michaels, I think," Ryan answered cautiously, not knowing what to think about Gail's refusal to leave.

"Okay. Ask for Dr. Lisa Gordon. She's a plastic surgeon. She's a good friend of Holly's. Make sure that she makes it so Holly doesn't have any scars."

"Gail, what happened?" Ryan stared at Gail and tried to get her to look her in the eye.

Just then Maclean and Gibbons rolled Holly by them on their way back to the helicopter. Maclean said, "She's lost a lot of blood and we need to get her back as soon as possible. We need to go _now_."

Gail said, "You heard the lady, Ryan. Go."

"Here. Take my walkie-talkie. I'll radio them where you are on my way back. Are you sure, Gail?" Ryan didn't think this was right but she saw no way to force Gail to go since she had only one working arm, and Holly looked a hell of a lot worse than Gail.

Gail nodded in response.

"They're on their way. Stapleton is in custody. So you don't have to worry about her," Ryan said as Mac and Gibbons finished loading Holly inside the helicopter.

Gail nodded again. Then Ryan began to run back to the helicopter whose blades were already starting to spin. Gail called out, "Ryan!" Ryan turned back as she was climbing inside to look at Gail thinking Gail had changed her mind. "I'm glad you're not dead!"

"You too, Peck! You're sure?!" Ryan gestured to the transport.

"I'm sure!"

Ryan nodded solemnly and shut the door. Gail watched the helicopter take off and made another deal with God. _See? I can give her up. Now let her live. Let her be happy and whole, and Holly._ She walked back inside the garage, crumpled to the floor of the van and sobbed.

* * *

"You know, when you called and said you needed a favor this wasn't what I was expecting," Mac said as she attached tubing to an IV.

Ryan was seated next to Holly holding her hand. Not looking at Mac she asked, "What were you expecting?"

"Not this. This is a helluva field dressing though. Your friend we left out there do this then?"

"I dunno. Holly is a doctor maybe she told her what to do before she passed out," Ryan answered finally looking at Mac. "Is she going to make it?"

"She lost a lot of blood. I can tell you that for the field with the injuries that she had, they did the absolute best that they could have. This belt on her calf here? That probably kept her from bleeding to death but I'm going to need to loosen it because I can't get a pedal pulse. We're going to pump her full of fluids to sort of stabilize the blood loss but she'll need blood when we get to the hospital. When I loosen this I want you to watch it. Make sure there's no new blood."

"I can do that," Ryan said taking a deep breath.

"Ryan," Mac said waiting for Ryan to look at her. "We're going to take care of her. I promise we're going to do everything we can for her."

"I know you will. I'll owe you."

"No. Not for this. This is what we do. Right, Gibby?"

"Righto."

"That doesn't inspire confidence. All the things you could say and you go with 'righto'?" Mac asked.

"Give me a break. It's three in the morning and I'm not trying to impress the hot FBI agent," Gibbons said as he hooked Holly up to various monitors. Mac blushed crimson but said nothing. Ryan smiled a tiny almost imperceptible smile but turned her eyes back to Holly's leg.

Soon, the slow steady beep of Holly's heartbeat could be heard above the noise of the engine. "Holly! Holly! You hang in there girl! Peck worked too hard to keep you alive for you to die on her! You hear me Holly?! You've got a lot to live for! You keep fighting!" Ryan yelled at her. "You're safe now! We're taking you to the hospital! You're safe!"

* * *

Ryan paced swiftly back and forth in the ER waiting room her cowboy boots clacking on the tile. She'd passed on Gail's request for Dr. Gordon to be in on Holly's case to Mac and was now on her cell phone with Traci.

"Traci, I think she's hurt. She had bruising on her face and I think maybe something with her ribs…yeah, yeah, takes one to know one. Clever…Just check on her when you get there. Make her consent to being treated…Yes, I know it won't be easy. Why do you think I left her out in the middle of nowhere? I swear she's part mule."

Ryan looked up from her phone when the ER doors swung open. Mac was coming towards her. Ryan tried to determine what Holly's status was but Mac's face was carefully blank. She wondered fleetingly if all medical professionals learned that blank look out of some book or in some class. It was infuriating.

When they had arrived Mac and Gibbons had rolled Holly into the ER with the efficiency of team that had a lot of practice. Somewhere during the litany of things wrong with Holly as the ER docs took over treatment, Ryan's cell phone had rung and she'd been on the phone first with Oliver and then with Traci. She'd been shown out of the ER bay and into the waiting room by a nurse that thankfully didn't comment she shouldn't be on her phone.

"Traci, I've got to go. I'll call you as soon as I know something. I promise."

Ryan hung up her phone and looked at Mac. "Well?"

"They're taking her to surgery now," Mac answered neutrally.

"And?" Ryan asked impatiently.

"And, we won't know until she gets out of surgery."

"That's not an answer."

"I know, but it's all I have right now." Mac reached out and lightly touched the outside of Ryan's injured elbow. "How about we walk to the surgery waiting room and I sit with you? Would that be okay?"

"Do you know where it is?"

"Yeah, Follow me."

They walked through a series of hallways and took an elevator up to the surgery floor. Mac led the way into the emergency surgery waiting room. She was a calm steadying presence to Ryan who, while she had spent a lot of times in waiting rooms because of her job, was feeling a little lost and vulnerable.

"Don't you have to go back to work?" Ryan asked with an almost hopeful look on her face that clearly said she wished Mac didn't.

Mac gestured to two empty chairs and they sat down. "Nah. Gibby and I basically hijacked the heli. The flight crew owed us both one, and we were about to go off duty when you called and asked if you could ride."

"I'm sorry. I didn't know who else to call. I was desperate." Ryan looked down at her lap.

"Hey, hey. It's okay. I'm glad you called. I'm glad I could help," Mac said and touched Ryan's good hand. Ryan looked up at her and smiled. "Besides, I wasn't going to pass up another opportunity to see you." Mac smiled back.

"I always thought you Canadians were a shy people."

"We're polite. There's a difference."

"Well…"

"Look, I'm not that much of an ogre. I know that you're worried about your friend. I'm just trying to take your mind off of her for a bit."

Ryan closed her eyes and rested her head on the wall behind her chair. "Thanks."

"Are you in pain? I can get someone to give you something. My buddy, who's a doc, works here. You'd like her. She wears cowboy boots with her scrubs."

"Yeah, but I want to make sure I understand what they say when they finally say it. So 'no' to the pain meds. Cowboy boots, huh? Where's she from?" Ryan asked but didn't open her eyes.

"Regina."

"Where the hell is that?"

"Saskatchewan."

"Yeah, I've seen that. Still don't know where it is."

"Well, I know Texas is located near the middle of the bottom of the U.S. and it's big and shaped funny but that's about it."

Ryan opened her eyes, leaned forward and looked into Mac's eyes, "Darlin' you don't wanna get me to talkin' 'bout Texas, now."

Mac tilted her head. "Did you do that on purpose or did it happen naturally?"

"Do what?"

"Your accent got thicker just now."

"Did it?" Ryan tried for innocence.

"You did it on purpose!"

"That depends."

"On what?"

Ryan closed her eyes, leaned her head back on the wall and said, "On if you liked it or not."

"Agent Parker, I have found that there's very little of you thus far that I have not liked," Mac said and smiled coyly. "But I must admit the accent is…something."

"Good?" Ryan asked, not moving.

"You know it is."

"Mac?"

"Yeah?"

"When will we know something about Holly?"

"Not for a while yet. Why don't you try to sleep and I'll wake you if they come out?"

"I promised a beautiful woman I wouldn't go to sleep because she said I might have a concussion."

"Well, she'll make an exception."

"Will she?"

"Yes. Besides, I don't think you have a concussion. You're much too hard-headed to have one," Mac said with laughter in her voice. "You found your friends. Just like you said you would. Sleep now. I'll wake you when there's news."

* * *

A doctor in scrubs and a scrub cap came into the waiting room. Mac recognized her as Dr. Lisa Gordon. She shook Ryan gently to wake her. "Ryan. Ryan, wake up. The doc's here."

"Wha'?" Ryan yawned.

"That's Dr. Gordon there," Mac said as she pointed.

Ryan stood up and Lisa walked over to her and Mac. "You're Special Agent Ryan?"

"Yes."

Lisa shook her head and muttered, "She's always had a thing for blondes…"

"Excuse me?" Ryan asked.

"It's nothing. You brought Holly in?"

"Yeah. Well, I flew with her on the medi-flight helicopter. Mac" she gestured toward Mac, "and her partner Gibbons did all the hard work. How is she?"

"She's going to make it. She lost a lot of blood but we were able to repair the damage. I'm not sure if there will be complications at this time. So it's a game of watch and wait at this point. I was able to close most of the wounds so there will be minimal scarring. How did you know to ask for me?" Lisa asked.

"Gail," Ryan answered.

"Is she responsible for this?! Holly got involved in this because of her didn't she?" Lisa raised her voice.

"Now Dr. Gordon, Gail saved Holly's life in the field. I'm sure of it. I don't think it's very fair that you…" Mac started.

"Whatever! Stupid beat cop! Holly could have been anything she wanted and she pokes at dead people. This is Gail's fault! Isn't it?"

"Now just wait a minute. You're gonna want to take that back. Gail Peck is one of the finest law enforcement officers I've ever known. If you keep talking like that we're going to have a problem."

"Then we have a problem because she's the worst thing that ever happened to Holly."

Ryan couldn't take it anymore. This had been the most unbelievable day. She'd used up all her self-control with Megan Stapleton. Before she knew it, Lisa's head snapped back and she had a stinging pain in her left hand. "Shut the hell up! You've got no idea what you're talking about. Holly's injured because Ross Perik injured her. Gail Peck saved them both. Perik and his niece have been torturing Holly for months! For months!

"Holly is the best forensic pathologist I've ever seen! She's put away countless criminals. Solved hopeless cases and brought closure to hundreds of families. You will not reduce that to 'poking at dead people.' Do we understand each other?"

Lisa held her hand over her right eye. "How dare you!"

Mac stepped between them. "Ladies, emotions are running high right now. Ryan you were almost kidnapped yourself and apprehended a murderer. And Dr. Gordon, you just performed surgery on one of your good friends. Let's just all step back and take a breather. Okay?"

"Fine," Ryan growled still looking at Lisa.

"Not fine. She hit me!"

"Dr. Gordon, please. It's been a horrible day all around. Please," Mac pleaded.

Lisa narrowed her eyes. You're friends with Dr. Harris aren't you?"

"Yeah, I am," Mac answered warily.

"I want an introduction and a date," Lisa answered.

"A…a…" Mac stammered

"Or I file charges against your friend here."

"I can't promise you a date but you'll get your introduction. Best I can do," Mac said as she held out her hand.

Lisa shook it. "I'll look forward to it but you have to try for the date. At least try."

"Deal."

"Good." Lisa turned and walked away.

* * *

The next morning Ryan was sitting by Holly's bedside holding her hand when Holly finally stirred. Mac had finally gone home at Ryan's insistence. Ryan wasn't sure what she'd owe Mac or Dr. Harris for getting her out of a situation made of her own impatience and stupidity, but it promised to be substantial.

The team was still out at the cabin processing the scene. According to Traci, it had taken Oliver ordering Gail to be treated before she'd let the EMTs look at her but she was going to be okay. They wanted Gail to go into the hospital but she wouldn't leave until the scene was processed.

"Hey, hey there, Holls. Can you open your eyes for me?" In response Holly grimaced and struggled finally opening her eyes. "Hey there beautiful. Good of you to rejoin us."

"Ry? Ry, what happened?"

"You're at the hospital. You had surgery. You're gonna be fine."

"Where's…where's Gail?"

"She's still at the scene. I'm sure she'll be here soon. She's fine or she'll be fine. The EMTs have checked her out but she refused to leave until the scene was fully processed.

"No offense, but you're not exactly the gorgeous blonde I was expecting when I woke up."

Ryan laughed. "None taken, Darlin'. None taken."

* * *

**So yeah, no idea if any of this is possible. I hope no one looks at my Google search history anytime soon "how to treat a knife wound using household items". But officer, it was for fanfic!**

**Also, sad about the cancellation of Rookie Blue. So I took out some of my frustration on Lisa. I know it's unrealistic but I wanted to so badly. But you know what if you hated it, write me a review and tell me how much! :)**

**I'd love to get your opinions on all of it. That's the best part of putting anything out here. Your input makes it worthwhile. Thank you so, so much.**


	22. Chapter 22

**Happy (American) Thanksgiving! I wish for you and yours many, many things to be for which to be thankful. I hope you enjoy this. So pull up a turkey leg or a tofu log and enjoy!**

* * *

It was mid-afternoon when Traci walked into Holly's hospital room. Ryan was leaning back in a chair reading a three year old magazine with her legs crossed, her feet on the end of Holly's bed. Traci looked over at Holly who was sleeping and inclined her head in silent question.

"She's been asleep for the last couple of hours. Woke up briefly this morning enough to wonder where Gail is," Ryan whispered. Then she asked, "Where _is_ Peck?"

Traci shook her head and sat down in the other visitor chair before answering. "Once the scene was mostly processed, we all took turns trying to convince her to leave. It took Steve threatening to abandon her to all future Peck dinners on her own to get her to go. I've never seen so much blood at one scene in all my time on the force. Gail and Perik must have fought through the entire upstairs. It took us hours to catalog everything. I interviewed Gail myself. She had trouble remembering some of it. I think because it all must have happened so fast."

"We," Ryan gestured to the still sleeping Holly, "were expecting her here."

"Yeah. Steve called me after he took Gail home. The EMTs had treated her on scene; she refused to go to the hospital. Their best guess was that she had at least three broken ribs, she had some bruising around her neck where Perik had tried to choke her, but after they cleaned all the blood off of her they decided she'd live. She had blood from both Perik and Holly all over her.

"Anyway, Steve said she panicked at the thought that he was going to bring her here so she refused to take any pain pills until he took her to her apartment. Then when she took one she freaked out and made him promise to stay and protect her from baby pink elephants."

"Baby pink elephants?"

"I…"

Holly spoke up. "It was a stuffed animal in the ER when she burned her wrist. It freaked her out so bad that she asked McNally to get rid of it. She told me McNally made it disappear."

"Hey there girl. How are you feeling?" Traci asked as she reached out and took Holly's hand.

"What was it, Ry?"

"I said you looked like hammered shit."

"Yeah. That."

Traci laughed. "Well, let me say, you've never looked better to me. I'm so glad you're all right."

"Thanks, Trace."

"Has the doctor been by?" Traci asked.

Holly looked over at Ryan. Ryan answered, "Not this afternoon. Your main surgeon came by this morning. You were out cold. Said she expected you to recover with almost no lasting effects. She said you were lucky to have a surgeon as talented as Lisa on your team."

"Lisa operated on me?!"

"Easy there. Yes she did." Ryan raised her hand to pat Holly's foot and thought better of it. "Sorry, Hol, I'm not sure where to touch you that isn't sliced up."

"I don't think there is anywhere," Holly answered smiling sadly.

"Hey, hey. It's going to be okay. Lisa said you'd have minimal scarring."

"When did she come by?"

"Last night."

"Not today? That's odd. I wonder…"

"Probably my fault," Ryan said.

"Why is that?" Holly asked slowly.

Just then they all noticed Mac standing in the doorway. She spoke up smiling, "Probably because Special Agent Parker here popped her in the eye."

Traci stared between the newcomer and Ryan. Holly said slowly, "Ryan?"

"What was it you said, Mac?" Ryan asked.

"I said emotions were running high," Mac answered her arms crossed over her chest leaning against the doorjam.

"Yeah…yeah…emotions. I did it because of emotions," Ryan said and Holly tilted her head in question. "It was emotions." Ryan repeated emphatically. She refused to say anything further. Lisa did save Holly's life after all.

"Ry, you shouldn't have done that. Lisa can be…vindictive," Holly said carefully.

"Oh I wouldn't worry about that. I just introduced Dr. Gordon to my friend Madison. They have a coffee date later this afternoon," Mac said smirking.

"Oh God. You've pimped out your friend for me." Ryan put her face in her hands. "What's this going to cost me?"

"Oh, the possibilities are endless," Mac said laughing. "But it won't cost you anything. I'm not blackmailing you. Besides, I might have done the same thing in your position."

"What position is that?" Traci couldn't stop herself from asking.

Mac ignored the warning look from Ryan and walked into the room so that she could better direct her answer to Holly. "Your friend Dr. Gordon blamed Gail for you being hurt and said some unflattering things about her and you for that matter. Before any of us knew what was happening, Ryan hit her. It was more of a jab than a full punch though."

"What did she say?" Holly asked pushing herself up on the bed.

"I don't think the particulars are important. The important thing is that I didn't do it on purpose." Ryan gestured helplessly with her hands for emphasis.

"What did she say?" Holly asked again.

"If you want to know so bad, ask Lisa," Ryan said and looked over at Mac. "I wouldn't have told you anything if I'd had my druthers."

"We're going to need a translation there, Parker," Traci said.

"You know…" Ryan looked around and saw the blank faces. "It means…it means…look I'm not exactly sure. I think it's my 'I'd rathers' but I'm not sure. I just wouldn't have told you if it'd been left up to me."

"I knew that and I didn't think it was right for you to take the blame. I really thought it was that both of you care very deeply for Holly though." Mac turned to Holly. "Your friend had just operated on you. Everyone was very upset. I think she just needed someone to blame to explain what happened to you. You were in pretty bad shape. I'm amazed you're coherent and talking."

"Well, I guess I owe that to my medical team. I assume you were part of it, or are you just here to give Ryan a hard time? Either way, thank you," Holly said to Mac with a half-smile.

"Nice to formally meet you," Mac said and shook Holly's hand then Traci's. "I'm MacKenzie Maclean." She turned back to Holly. "My partner Gibbons and I gave Ryan a ride on a heli and picked you up late last night/early this morning. You looked like death on a cracker. I'm amazed you were able to tell your friend how to stop the bleeding on that wound without any real medical supplies. You must be a helluva doctor."

"I…I didn't."

"Gibby owes me twenty bucks," Mac grinned. "I said the blonde did it. That was an expert level field dressing. I love being right."

Traci decided to fill in the gaps for them. "It's a Peck thing. Steve told me. Their parents sent them to all kinds of camps and things growing up. Things that would make them better suited for the force." She looked at Ryan. "Remember when I told you to think of the Peck house like ancient Sparta?" Ryan nodded. "Elaine and Bill trained them like they were soldiers."

"That's messed up," Mac said.

"You don't know the half of it," Traci responded.

"But I do. Gail is amazing despite her family. She never let me around them all that much. So I had to figure things out just by observing Gail. She's got all those walls because of them. From what I can tell, they have no idea how amazing she is but I do," Holly said in a quiet voice.

"Sounds like you're in love," Lisa said from the doorway.

Holly looked over at her friend who had managed to enter the room without anyone noticing her. "That's quite a shiner," Holly teased.

"Can I help it if your friend over there hits like a hammer?" Lisa replied.

Ryan stood up wiping her good hand on her pants as she did so and addressed Lisa, "I am really sorry. I had the most awful day yesterday. I know that's no excuse, but it's not like me. I don't know what to say."

"Well, lucky for you, it elicited the perfect amount of sympathy from Dr. Harris who happens to think it makes me look dangerous. And while I will never say any words deserve a violent response, I was out of line with what I said. We were both on edge yesterday. I didn't even know Holly was in Toronto much less that she'd end up in my OR. So let's call it even," Lisa said and held her hand out to Ryan. Ryan shook it.

"Thanks, Doc."

"Not a problem thanks to your friend Mac over there, who, if the grapevine can be trusted, is quite taken with you Agent Parker," Lisa said and Mac blushed to the roots of her hair.

"How did you do that? I've been trying to get under her skin for the last 48 hours," Ryan said.

"Ah, that's easy. The best friends always talk," Lisa replied.

"Speaking of, can you guys give us a minute?" Holly asked.

"Sure," Traci answered. "I need to check in with my mom and Leo anyway.

"Yeah, I'll just go and murder Maddie. Be back in a few," Mac said.

"Aw now darlin' do go 'n do that. Besides, I like knowin' I crank your tractor," Ryan teased.

Mac rolled her eyes. "Oh my God. Stop." Not quite successfully hiding the smile on her face.

* * *

After they left, Holly looked at Lisa. "I'm sorry you had to operate on me but I'm glad you did."

"I didn't even know you were in Toronto, Holly."

"I know. I'm sorry. This case…this case has been horrible."

"Why didn't you talk to me? Or Rachel? I called her today and she didn't know either."

"I haven't been talking to anyone, well, except Ryan."

"I get that you can't share case details, Holly but c'mon. You could let your two best friends know you were going to be in town," Lisa said emphatically.

"No. I couldn't. Not really. I was afraid you'd be in danger. Anyone around me was a potential target."

"How long has this been going on?"

"A few months. Right after I got my promotion."

Lisa looked away. "I just thought you were busy. I should have known."

"Hey, it's not your fault. I couldn't figure out a way to do what I had to do and still have a normal life."

"Madison said that according to Mac, who heard from Ryan…God, this feels like a game of telephone…"

"So, what's the story morning glory?" Holly smiled her crooked smile.

Lisa smiled back. Then she sobered. "Madison said all the victims looked like your ex-girlfriend." Holly nodded in response. "So for months you've been autopsying women who look like Gail?" Holly just nodded again. "Holly, I'm so, so sorry." Lisa sat on the edge of Holly's bed and took Holly's hands in hers gently. "I know that tore you apart."

Holly started to cry softly. "It was awful."

"Aw, honey. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you."

"I didn't really let anyone in."

"You hardly ever do." Lisa took a deep breath. "Did Ryan tell you why she hit me yesterday?"

"She told me that I had to ask you. She said, no Mac said, whatever, someone said that 'emotions were running high.'"

"Well, that's certainly one way to put it. I was just so blindsided. I needed someone to blame, and it was a hell of a lot easier having this be Gail's fault than a scalpel wielding psychopath. I didn't mean it. It was stupid of me. So let me just say to you – I'm sorry."

"Lisa, I never listen to what you say anyway," Holly smirked.

"Bitch!" Lisa teased playfully. Then more seriously, "I also found out that Ryan dislocated her shoulder fighting off one of your psychopaths and Gail had Ryan request me so you wouldn't have scars. All that true?"

"Yeah."

"Dammit. I'm going to have to make nice with the cop, aren't I?"

Holly sighed. "Well, that depends if she'll see me."

"What the hell? Why wouldn't she see you?"

"I don't know."

"If she doesn't want to see you, she's a bigger idiot than I thought she was."

"Lisa," Holly warned.

"What? It's true."

"Lisa!"

"Fine. I'll make nice with her. I'll hire a skywriter if I have to."

"Better."

"You need anything? How much pain are you in?"

"I'm okay."

"Don't lie to me, Holly. I've known you too long."

"I want to be awake if she comes by."

"If you're in this kind of shape, what does she look like? Is she in another hospital?"

"No. They treated her on scene because she refused to go to a hospital, but she had a few broken ribs and she's taking painkillers. Her brother is watching her."

"Okay so she's on pain meds. She's not going to be by anytime soon. Hit the little red button and deal yourself some happy juice. Rachel is going to be by later on tonight. She said she can't wait to meet the woman who finally did what she's wanted to do since we met."

"What's that?" Holly asked as she was pushing the button that would administer a dose from her pain pump.

"Punch me in the eye when I was being a bitch," Lisa said as she adjusted Holly's pillows. Holly just smiled dreamily in response.

* * *

**Folks,**

**I know this is probably not the chapter you wanted to read. It wasn't the one I set out to write but Gail is a stubborn ass. I think Holly is going to have to be the one to convince her. I promise we'll have that soon. But please let me know what you think. You know how I love reviews...**


	23. Chapter 23

**If you're reading this, I am grateful. I know it's been a while. Thank you to all of you who've taken the time to favorite, follow, and review. All the messages of encouragement, the thoughtful criticism have made me a better, more confident writer. So thank you so much for that. I read and appreciate every one of them. **

**All of that encouragement led me to try my hand at an original story and I took the month of December off to submit that to a publisher. Something I'd never have done two years ago. So thank you. Your encouragement was...nurturing to me. This chapter is a bit longer than normal to thank you for that and thank everyone for their patience.**

**Oh – Cleve uses the word "git" in this chapter. I feel the need to explain this isn't the word as it would be used in the U.K. It's a phonetic spelling of "get" as in "get out of here."**

**Now, on with our story.**

* * *

Mac sat on the love seat in Ryan and Holly's new hotel room next to Ryan's left side holding Ryan's left hand loosely in her right, her thumb tracing light patterns along the inside of Ryan's wrist that made the blonde grin wickedly and side-eye her. They were giggling like teenagers and Holly could feel her frayed nerves snap and crackle with tension.

"Oh for God's sake. Go…someplace else!" Holly snapped from her wheelchair. She was dressed in matching warm-ups that Rachel had bought for her. The pants were loose and had snaps all the way up the sides so they could open up completely for treatment of Holly's wounds.

Holly hated feeling helpless and maybe she'd been a little hard to live with herself. It had been two weeks and still no word from Gail. She'd tried calling. She'd sent messages with various visitors from Tracy and Steve, to Oliver, to even Nick. Nothing. Not one word of reply. She'd wanted to go over to Gail's apartment but she'd have to be carried in and that was more humiliation than she could stand at the moment.

"Holly, we want to be here for you," Ryan placated.

"You keep that up and I'll…"

"You'll what?" Ryan taunted. "The only reason you're out of the hospital is because Lisa worked some sort of angle. You're still not supposed to be up and moving around except from your wheel-chair to the toilet or the shower-seat in the bathroom. Your physical therapy doesn't start until next week. What are you going to do?" Ryan asked and smirked like she already knew that there was nothing Holly could do.

"I'll have Cleve shoot you," Holly answered smugly.

"What?" Ryan and Mac asked together.

"Cleve, if they keep this up will you shoot them for me?" Holly turned and asked Cleve who was reading a battered copy of _Bliss_.

Cleve didn't even look up when she answered, "With pleasure."

"You don't mean that," Ryan said.

"Try me."

"Cleve…"

"Nope. You two go out. Go get some dinner. I'll sit with Holly. We'll visit," Cleve said and Ryan looked like she wanted to protest. "Git."

* * *

"Thank you," Holly said shakily from her position on the love seat next to her wheel-chair. "I know I'm being petty, and they really are trying to keep me company but I…I…"

"It's overwhelming. Believe it or not you're not the first capable woman who's landed in the hospital and then out, probably before she should be. I know Ryan is just trying to keep an eye on you like she promised Lisa." Cleve smiled and Holly thought it was the warmest emotion she'd seen out of her, usually she was so official.

"Yeah. I…thank you, really."

"S'nothing. You'd do the same for me if I let you. Besides, if they don't do something about that attraction soon, I was afraid they were going to set the drapes on fire."

Holly laughed, "Right?" Then she thought for a moment and realized that she had no idea what was actually going on with Ryan and Mac. "Cleve, do you know…"

"Nope. Don't want to either," Cleve cut her off and looked back down seemingly about to read her book again.

"K," Holly said softly, dejectedly.

Cleve sighed and closed the book again. "When I was little I had a dog. Her name was Strut. Birddog. Man, she was something else. My daddy wanted to send her off, have her force-broke like a champion because she had the right bloodline."

"What's that? 'Force-broke'?"

"You train them with force, with pain. They learn if they do something wrong they're punished. Ruins good dogs, but hunters still do it. My dog came back different. Trainer said she failed. My daddy said we'd wasted money on her. But I didn't believe it. From then on every time we went out to hunt she was skittish; anything would spook her, doves taking flight, a gun going off.

"I was patient though. Every day I went out with her. I told her how pretty she was. What a good dog she was. How it didn't matter what other people thought. Just us. How much I loved her. Every day. After a while, I think she started to believe me. She started to trust me again. Trust I wouldn't let anyone hurt her. She and I became a team again. We started to have fun again."

"I know we're not talking about dogs here, Cleve but I'm still on some pretty good pain meds. You're going to have to spell this out for me."

"Your girl Gail. From what I can tell, she's got the right pedigree. She's a hell of a specimen but they've ruined her trying to force-break her. You're going to have to be the one to let her know she can trust you. That you know it's not her fault. That you won't let anyone or anything hurt her or change your opinion of her."

"What happened with Strut?"

"We won the Field Trial championship for our age group," Cleve said then opened up her book signaling to Holly that the conversation was over.

* * *

Ryan pounded on the door. Gail called out from the inside. "Go away! Unless you have tequila!"

Ryan knelt down and picked the lock so fast if Mac hadn't been standing there she'd have thought she had a key. Standing up quickly Ryan spoke as she opened the door. "Traci said you've refused to go see Holly. I'm here to hog-tie you and drag you over there."

Gail shook her head and looked over at them from her supine position on the couch her left ankle under an ice pack. "You can try. I'd hate to kick your ass in front of your new…_friend._"

"_You_ could try," Ryan responded arching her eyebrow, "but I'm pretty sure even with an arm at probably 60% I could take you right now. How are the ribs? What happened to the ankle?"

"They're fine. Tweaked it getting out of the shower today. I landed on it funny that night when I was coming down off the telephone pole. I'm fine. Everything is fine. Now will you leave?"

"Nope," Ryan answered sitting down in a green chair at the end of the coffee table. Mac leaned on the chair's arm.

Gail narrowed her eyes at Mac. "And you are?"

"MacKenzie Maclean. We've met several times over the past two years, Detective Peck but you've never really noticed me. I hear that's typical for you," Mac said and Ryan looked over at her with interest. Mac winked at her.

"Ah, you're Ryan's bang buddy. Nice to meet you," Gail said icily.

"Peck!" Ryan yelled.

Mac laughed. "You're just as charming as I've heard you are. So tell me, why are you avoiding Holly?"

"Not big on preamble there are you?" Gail still didn't lift her head or so much as look at them.

"Nope, I don't see any point in it. You're obviously miserable here. She's miserable there," Mac answered.

"Downright snarky if you ask me," Ryan said.

"Aww, now tell me if it was you, you wouldn't have shot someone by now," Mac said and grinned.

"That's me. This is Holly. It takes a lot to make her snap," Ryan replied.

"Oh my God. If you two idiots think my tolerance for bullshit is anywhere in the neighborhood of Holly's, I'll shoot both of you," Gail groaned.

"Obviously, her's is higher. She put up with you didn't she?" Ryan joked.

"Fuck you, Parker," Gail said weakly.

Ryan winced. She hadn't meant that to land so harshly. She'd expected Gail to bite back not give up. "Hey, what's going on with you, Gail? That woman is pining for you like a hound dog does for a bone. The only reason she's not over here herself is that she can't actually walk yet, but when she gets…what is it, Mac?"

"Ambulatory."

"Yeah, ambulatory. She's gonna be over here and knock down your door herself. I have no idea why you're avoiding her but you won't be able to do it much longer." Ryan looked over at Gail who showed no signs she was even paying attention at this point. "You're not that stupid, Peck. When someone like Holly loves you like she loves you, you reach out and grab the brass ring and hold on tight. Not rollover and play dead."

"Go…" Gail started, but a knock on the door interrupted her. Ryan was sure that what Gail was about to instruct her to do was going to be colorful if not anatomically impossible.

"Hold that thought, Gail," Ryan said as she rose to open the door.

Ryan peeked out Gail's peep hole out of habit. It was a good habit and she had almost been able to forget the one time it had failed her. Almost. She took in a breath of relief when she saw Traci on the other side. She opened the door a bit slower than she would have just a few weeks before.

"Ryan, I didn't expect you here," Traci said as soon as she entered.

"Well, Holly threw us out, and threatened to have Cleve shoot us if we didn't leave so…"

Gail's laughter bounced around the apartment. She caught her breath and looked between Ryan and Mac, "Oh, you two left out the best part! What the hell did you do to her?"

"We were just…happy, Gail. That's all. Just happy," Mac answered her sadly. "She's miserable. I told you before."

Gail blew out a breath and turned her attention to Traci. "Trace, you here to lecture me on how I'm fucking up my life too?"

"No, I'm here to tell you something…hard," Traci trailed off softly.

"What is it?" Gail asked as she sat up and moved over to one side of the couch making room for Traci like she had not for Ryan or Mac.

Traci sat and gathered herself for just a moment before speaking. "Gail, I asked if I could be the one to tell you." She looked over to Ryan who had sat back down next to Mac, "I'm glad you're here too. The judge has thrown out Megan Stapleton's confession because she was, in his words, 'under the influence of mind-altering substances, and unable to properly make decisions.'"

"What?!" Ryan and Gail yelled together.

"He said we'd violated her rights by interrogating her when she couldn't properly decide whether or not she wanted a lawyer," Traci said.

"That's the biggest load of horseshit I've ever heard! I got the same pain shot she did. Didn't I, Mac?" Ryan turned to Mac and asked.

Mac answered, "I gave you both a ketorolac injection. It's an NSAID used to reduce pain. It's not an opioid."

Ryan swung her open hand palm upward between Mac and Traci. "See, see! And I wasn't impaired in any way."

"You did punch Dr. Gordon in the eye," Mac said.

Gail held up her hand, "You punched Boob Job? I want to hear _that_ story in all its glorious detail but let's get back to Cuckoo for Coco Puffs. What does this mean, Trace?"

"He threw out everything. Everything on the victims in the States, everything about Denise Lambert and Maggie Davis here. Everything but what happened in the hotel room that Ryan and Holly can testify to."

"How is that even possible? I don't understand…" Ryan started. "Wait. Everything?"

"Not any actual physical evidence. So the physical evidence we got from Maggie Davis and Denise Lambert is admissible but not her confession."

"Put me in a room with her," Gail interrupted.

"What?" Ryan asked.

"I want to interrogate her. We're still allowed to interrogate her again aren't we, Trace?"

"Yes, but she'll have her lawyer with her now," Traci answered.

"I could give a fuck. I can break her." She turned to Ryan, "I read the transcripts. You seem to tweak her more than anybody but me and Holly, you want another shot at her?" Gail said.

"Hell yes!"

* * *

It was two more weeks before they could get Stapleton into interview. Traci thought that the observation room was especially crowded. Luke, Sam, Andy and Oliver were already in there when she entered, Holly, using a cane, following closely behind.

"Holly, darlin'," Oliver beamed at her. "You look like you're feelin' much better!"

Holly was walking carefully partially because she was sore from the physical therapy and partially because she didn't want to hurt anyone. Rachel had come by a few days ago with a cane that had a stun gun built-in. In her words, _Honestly, Holls, it'd make me feel better. Just use the damn thing._

"Hey, Ollie. It's good to see you." She hugged him tightly.

"You're here to see our girl. Move out of the way boys. Let's get one of those stools over here for the good doctor to lean on," Oliver instructed.

"What have I missed?" Holly asked.

"Not much. Parker and Peck just got through reading Stapleton her rights again. Lawyer has been making noises about the 'travesty of justice' and 'waste of her client's time' blah, blah. Same ol' lawyer stuff," Sam answered.

"So what do you think, the old good cop/bad cop?" Luke asked.

"My money is on bad cop worse cop," Holly said.

"That I believe, but which one of them gets to be 'worse' cop?" Andy asked.

"I think the guessing is part of making the suspect nervous. Ryan and her ex-husband used to do it and quite well," Holly answered.

"Husband?" Luke asked.

"Yeah, ex-husband," Holly said.

"So, she didn't figure out she was gay until later?" Sam asked.

Holly tilted her head, "You all know that there are more stops on the sexuality spectrum than heterosexual and homosexual, right?"

"Uh, yeah?" Sam said uncertainly.

"So what are you saying, Holly?" Luke said.

"Well, it's not my place to tell you Ryan's sexuality, Luke but it was fairly common knowledge that her marriage dissolved because she caught her husband in bed with his personal trainer, Brittani."

"What kind of idiot fucks something up with, someone like that?" Luke asked

"You," Sam coughed into his fist.

"I still fucking hate you most of the time, Swarek," Luke said with venom.

"Cool it, you two. I don't want to miss a minute of this," Andy said.

Holly hid her smile behind her hand and turned her attention back to the two-way glass. Ryan and Gail sat on one side of the table folders spread out between them. It was the first time that Holly had seen Gail since that night. She couldn't take her eyes off her. She couldn't stop drinking her in. She watched the bored expression and knew the keen interest that lay beneath those cool blue eyes.

Ryan laid out all the evidence that her team had gathered. Megan Stapleton's movements, her ties to Ross Perik. She presented mountains of evidence. She watched Ryan hammer away with questions and Gail's questioning taper off. She watched as Ryan seemed to get frustrated with Gail but she knew better.

About forty-five minutes into their little bit of theater at some invisible sign, Traci said, "That's my cue."

She walked out of the observation room and into the hallway and knocked on the door. Ryan rose in the interrogation room and walked into the hallway to speak to Traci. Holly couldn't hear what she said but heard Ryan's, "What?!" plainly enough before she closed the door.

They were back in observation with the others right after that eagerly watching what they had set up within the interrogation room. Gail took out her phone and looked down at it. She tapped at it for a bit then after a while, her posture relaxed conveying that she was at ease. The lawyer looked at her watch. Holly could see the exasperation on her face. Before she could say anything Andy beat her to it, "You know watching Gail piss someone else off is kinda liberating." They all laughed.

"This was all her idea. I hope to God it works," Ryan said.

The lawyer finally took the bait. "Are we boring you, Detective Peck?"

"Nope," Gail answered still looking at her phone.

"Look, if you don't have any more questions for my client, we're going to go," the lawyer said. Megan remained silent.

"Nope."

"No you don't have any questions?"

"Nope. You're not leaving."

"You can't just hold us here."

"Yeah, kinda can," Gail said still tapping away at her phone.

"Detective Peck! If you have no questions for my client, then you have to release her!"

Inside the observation room Traci said, "This is fantastic. Have you ever seen a lawyer this pissed off?"

"Once when Gail had one in booking on suspicion of drunk driving," Andy responded.

"C'mon, Megan. We're going to leave," the lawyer said standing up.

Gail looked up through her lashes at the two women across from her. She gestured with her phone hand tilting it so that they could see she was playing Candy Crush. "You are free to leave; she has to stay. My colleague believes she's the mastermind behind six murders. We have forensic evidence that ties her to them. We have testimony from two of the finest people I've ever known that _your client_ killed an innocent boy, attacked them and helped Ross Perik abduct Holly Stewart. Then planned to rape and kill Agent Ryan. Only managing to dislocate her shoulder." Gail sneered. Then continued, "So she stays put."

"Agent Ryan dislocated her own shoulder," Megan spoke for the first time.

Gail chuckled, "Of course she did."

"You said Agent Ryan believes me to be the 'mastermind,'" Megan said and Gail nodded in response, "but you don't believe it," Megan finished. Holly knew by the look of unfettered interest on her face that Gail had hooked her.

"I do not," Gail said.

"Surely, you can see reason here. My client was a pawn, a victim. She's not that much different than you, Detective P.."

Gail held up her hand. "Stop right there. Do not compare me to _that._" She pointed at Megan.

"So you think that you'd have been better than me?" Megan asked studying Gail.

"Oh I don't think. I know. I'm not a sniveling excuse for a woman."

"Detective," the lawyer tried to interject but Gail was on a roll.

"I beat him. I beat him twice," Gail said.

With a superior gaze Megan said, "Your _colleague_, Detective Barber? Wasn't it? He outsmarted Uncle Ross but not without paying a very heavy price."

In Observation Holly put her hand on Traci's arm. Traci didn't look back at them but she said, "I'm okay."

"You don't get to speak his name. You piece of shit," Gail ground out. Holly knew then that Gail had planned this moment. She'd deliberately put her emotions on display to give the woman across the table a feeling of superiority, a feeling that Gail had a weakness that was easily exploited. It was a brilliant strategy.

Sensing she had the upper hand Megan smiled, "That got under your skin. I can tell. That's the first emotion I've seen you show. You didn't like that. You're still scared of Uncle Ross, what he almost took from you."

Gail leaned over the table Peck mask back in place. "I killed my boogeyman, Megan. Nothing scares me anymore."

"Not even if something happened to your precious Holly," Megan taunted.

"Ross Perik is dead. Nothing is going to happen to Dr. Stewart. I made sure of that. When he had us tied up he became very attached to her. He said he knew she was the key to me but she seemed to…I dunno, inspire him I guess. I woke up to the sound of him torturing her. When we were fighting he said when he killed me, he was going to keep her alive. Keep her alive because she was so much more than he thought she'd be," Gail said and shuddered and Holly had no idea if what she said was true or if Gail had just said if for effect.

"You're lying," Megan said.

"No. He said he knew that bringing Dr. Stewart into it was the way to get to me but I think he was really, truly, fascinated by her," Gail said carefully.

"What is she doing? She's giving that defense attorney all the ammunition she needs," Sam said.

"She's not. Look at Stapleton's face," Ryan said.

"That's not true!" Megan yelled.

"It is."

"Is not!" Megan was red-faced. "He didn't even know she existed! I had to find her for him! Chase her down in California! It was my idea to use her to get to you! He couldn't see past his own obsession with you! I laid it out so that a blind monkey would know they were connected to you but she wouldn't come back! I had to keep dropping bodies at her feet. I even had to put your fucking fingerprints on them!"

"I think that's enough," the lawyer interjected.

"You shut up! You stupid cow!" Megan screamed at her attorney. She turned back to Gail, "It was my plan! My plan! I seduced your idiot ex, Chris. I figured out if I jogged by your building every night the patrol officers wouldn't refuse my offer to buy them coffee."

"I don't believe you," Gail said.

"Megan, as your attorney, I must advise you to not say another word!" the attorney said forcefully.

Holly could see the madness in Megan's eyes, the fury. Megan turned between her attorney and Gail. Gail's face was as placid as ever but Holly knew she wouldn't let her prey get away. Gail spoke again, "You mean to tell me, it was you that took the shot outside the Penny?" Gail's face showed disbelief.

"Then you people are idiots. I was on my college sharpshooting team. I could have killed her if I'd wanted to. I could have killed them both but it was too entertaining to see all of you running around trying to protect the pretentious Dr. Stewart. She's not worth your time, Gail. She could have saved lives if she'd only come here sooner. She didn't want to be here. Be with you. I'm the only reason she's here in Toronto now! She's a fool, Gail! She's a fool!"

"Let me get this straight. You're saying that you killed four women to bring me and my ex-girlfriend back together? What were the other two for? Did you just get carried away?" Gail's face pinched together in irritation.

"Are you an idiot too, Gail? No to getting you back together. Yes, I'm the one who planned everything, executed it to perfection. Women that looked like you. I knew that the fastest way to get you to go see Ross was if you thought she was involved. I did it to get you to Ross and I enjoyed the hell out of it."

Gail turned to the two-way glass and winked. Ryan whooped, "YeeHaw!"

"Easy there cowgirl. You need to calm down before you get back in there," Andy said laughing.

Ryan grinned and tipped an imaginary hat at Andy and left the room. They were still celebrating in observation, more quietly, when she got settled back in her chair and began questioning Megan again. The attorney had tried and failed to get Megan to stop talking but Megan's need for Gail to recognize her genius and to take credit for her plan were severely limiting the attorney's effectiveness.

Megan laid it all out again for them, every sordid detail. The attorney kept trying to interject to get them to take a break but Megan kept talking over her. In the end, she confessed to all the murders, the planning and execution the attempt on Holly's life, absolutely everything.

By the end Megan was sobbing, "So you see, it was me. It was me, Gail. I did all this for you. I wasn't going to let him kill you. I was going to save you. You and I could have been happy together. We were going to be each other's salvation. We are alike, you and I."

"Holy shit, she's crazier than I thought she was and that's saying something," Traci said.

Gail pushed away from the table a hard look on her face. Holly saw the emotion that Gail finally, finally allowed to surface. "I think that's everything, Agent Ryan." She stood up and walked to the door abruptly.

Holly started out of observation to catch her. She'd lose her in a foot race if it came to that, but she wasn't above shouting at her across the station and declaring her undying love for her. She was not prepared to find her, hands on her knees, head down, and leaning back against the wall of the interrogation room. Holly just stood there quietly not wanting to interrupt the moment, too afraid that if Gail felt even more vulnerable she'd run away even more than she had already. Holly felt rather than heard the door at her back open and slowly close again. For the moment, they were alone in the hallway. She knew the moment Gail felt her. She saw her stiffen almost imperceptibly.

Gail raised her head and the naked emotion in her eyes almost brought Holly to her knees but she stepped forward so close she could almost touch her. "Gail, are you okay?"

Gail swallowed and spoke in a tone that suppressed almost all emotion but Holly knew it was there anyway. "I'm just peachy, Lunchbox. Just peachy."

"Gail, I…"

The door to interrogation opened and Ryan brought out Megan Stapleton handcuffed with her hands in front of her. Megan took one look at them, shook Ryan off and rushed at them. Holly didn't even think she held up the cane and pressed she stun button. Megan's body jerked back and she fell on the floor twitching and screaming. That cleared all the nearby rooms. Soon the entire hallway was filled with law enforcement.

Ryan leaned over Megan and smiled, "Stings doesn't it?"

"Add attempted assault to her charges. Not that it will matter much," Traci said to the uniforms who came to aid Ryan in getting Megan back into a cell to wait for transport back to prison where she would stay until her lawyer saw reason and pleaded out, or until trial, whichever came first.

"My client needs medical attention!" the lawyer, Holly never did catch her name, shouted.

"She'll get it counselor. She'll get it. We just have to ensure the safety of our people first," Oliver said with his arm, not touching the lawyer but herding her down the hallway. "C'mon folks, let's give them some space."

Holly shot him a look full of gratitude. Gail seemed to be in some sort of fugue state so Holly pulled her into the now empty observation room. "Gail, Gail, let me look at you, are you okay? Did she touch you?"

Gail looked up into Holly's eyes, "You, you, what did you do?"

Holly turned the cane over in her hand and showed it to Gail. "It was a gift from Rachel. I thought it was ridiculous when she gave it to me but it came in handy today."

Gail sighed, "Yeah, I guess it did." Then she looked back down at her shoes.

"So we're back to that are we?" Holly asked.

"Back to what?" Gail looked up.

"You avoiding me. What did I do wrong?"

"Nothing, Lunchbox. Nothing. I just…"

"You just what, Gail?"

"I just, I can't be with you like you want me to be. That's all"

Holly turned a circle in frustration and began talking to the walls. "That's _all_ she says."

Gail stood stock still like she had been trained to do since childhood. She looked ready to be yelled at, cursed for not meeting someone's expectation. It made Holly furious but not at Gail. She decided on question that was easily asked but probably not easily answered, "Why, Gail?"

"I don't know why. Maybe it's just the way I am, maybe it was the way I was raised to be. I don't know. I can't be who you want."

Holly tilted her head and grinned slightly. "What makes you think I want anything other than exactly who you are, Gail Peck?"

Gail looked dumbstruck like she wasn't expecting this but she continued on, "C'mon, Holly you know at some point you'll get tired of me and my sharp edges. Everyone does. I'm never going to be warm and fuzzy. I'm never going to like 'Boob Job' and you love your friends…"

"That's not a deterrent. I don't like her half the time. But she's promised to give you another shot, or a fair shot. And I'm rather fond of all your edges. What else you got?" Holly pursed her lips and arched her eyebrow in challenge.

"I…I can't…I…goddamn it," Gail said and her voice trembled only slightly but Holly ached for her.

"What is it, Gail?" Holly asked as she carefully, gently took Gail's right hand in her left her right hand still holding her upright with her cane.

"I have cold feet and I snore."

"You do. I'll let you borrow some fuzzy socks and your snoring is adorable."

"You live in San Francisco."

"I'll move. I can fly anywhere to do the work I do. What else?"

"I can't lose you! I can't lose you! Okay?! Happy!? It almost destroyed me and you were safe and happy without me. I can't lose you if someone harms you and you're not happy or dead or I don't know something worse!" Gail said, and a single tear threatened to escape Gail's eyes. Holly wondered if there was ever anything more devastating that watching a strong woman try desperately not to cry.

Holly lost Gail somewhere in that and had to play it back over in her head. For a few seconds she looked like she was reading the answers off the underside of her eyebrows. "So, you think that us both being miserable being apart will keep me safe and eventually I'll be happy without you?"

Gail said nothing. She just stood taking in deep breaths.

Holly stepped closer. So close she could feel Gail's breath on her lips. Softly, she said, "Gail, what do _you_ want? Not what you think you should do, not what you think I want. What do _you_ want?"

"I want you to be happy," Gail said and her whole face in that moment was so unguarded that Holly felt herself fall harder, heart tumbling in her chest.

"Gail, I'm going to kiss you now. If you don't want this, then say so, but I think you've made me wait long enough." Holly leaned in with the intention of kissing Gail.

"I can't..." Gail said quietly.

Holly paused and pulled back, her eyes searching Gail's. "Gail, if you tell me that you don't want me, don't want to be with me, don't love me, I'll accept that. It'd be the hardest thing I've ever had to do but I'd honor your wishes and let you have what you want. But don't give me some crap about you being worried about me." She raised her left hand to cup Gail's cheek. "I know you're worried but I can take care of myself. I would never tell you not to be a police officer even though I'll worry every single minute.

"This could all have just as easily been my case that came back to us both. You can't stop it from living your life, honey. You can't. If you do, the Ross Periks and the Megan Stapletons of the world win. And I for one will not have that.

"I'm in love with a woman who's brave and good. Funny and snarky. She eats too much junk food and she has a hard time with words. But she is so sweet and beautiful inside and out. I feel how much she loves me, even if she doesn't always have all the words. I know how sensitive she is. I know how much she hides from the world. I love her with everything…mmmph…"

Gail took Holly's head in her hands and kissed her thoroughly. Holly wasn't sure if it was the kiss or her weakened condition but she had to pull away for air. Gail had a smug look on her face.

"You just had to stop talking."

"I won't say another word," Holly said, and leaned in for another kiss.

* * *

**One of my betas asked when she read this if this was the end. What say you? Is this the end of our story or do you need more? **


End file.
